The Kitsune in the Leaves
by Raziel777
Summary: Sonic and Naruto Crossover! A mysterious group of ninjas show up in search of the chaos emeralds, sending Sonic into the greatest battle of his life. And when Tails awakens the spirit of the Legendary Nine Tailed Demon Fox, all Hell will break loose.
1. Dark Tidings

Hi, guys. Welcome to my Sonic Naruto Crossover story. I'm a huge fan of Sonic and Naruto, so I'm writing this for all you Naruto fans out there.

Legal Disclaimer: Not I, nor is there really anyone else who can claim to own both Sonic The Hedeghog and Naruto. Sonic is owned by Sonic Team. Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto. Me? I'm just messing with both.

**The Kitsune in the Leaves**

**Chapter I: Dark Tidings**

_Once there existed a nine tailed demon fox. The most powerful of all demons, one swing of its tail could crumble mountains and create tsunamis. At its full power, the demon fox could destroy the world. This demon, known in the world of the shinobi as the Kyubi was said to be a being of pure malevolence. Fifteen years ago, it was finally sealed away. But now, the seal had started to weaken..._

Angel Island.

Truly, there could be no greater wonder on all of planet Mobius. Better known as the Floating Island, this mysterious paradise was the home to one of the most powerful artifacts in existence, the Master Emerald.

Being one of the most prized possessions in the universe, its guardian, Knuckles the Echidna worked round the clock, making sure the Emerald never fell into the wrong hands. Trained all his life to be attuned to the island and the Emerald, Knuckles sat alone in the inner chambers of the Hidden Palace Zone. He contemplated on the eternal power of the Master Emerald, and its energy that flowed through the island, the universe, and his own soul.

Most people would object to the idea of living inside an active volcano. But Knuckles the Echidna was not "most people." He was completely content with living in a home right under the infamous Lava Reef Zone. He liked lava. It was red just like he was, and he loved the lustrous glow it gave to the dark caverns, so far beneath the surface. A place that the sun could never find.

There was another reason that Knuckles was such a lava lover. It was a real wellspring of energy. Whenever he got close to it, he felt so invigorated and stronger than normal. A master once told him that such things contained large amounts of something called "chakra" and that's what made him so attached.

"Chakra," Knuckles dismissed the word, finding it too strange for his tastes. Still he knew there was an outpouring of energy in everything. His meditations saw this. When the echidna would close his eyes and brood, he could sense the flow of this "chakra."

Even from deep within his underground chamber, he could feel the flow of life thorough the trees and animals on the surface, in the snow falling on the ice caps, in the rushing waters of Hydro City, in the fungus on Mushroom Hill, and of course, in the boiling lava.

This time was different. This time, he found something in the lava that was not quite right. There was something lurking inside the molten core of Lava Reef. Something alive.

"An intruder is after the Master Emerald," that was guaranteed to be Knuckles' first thought. "Whoever this is, he's coming closer to the Hidden Palace."

Knuckles jumped out of his lotus meditation position and flexed his muscles. "How the Hell does Espio stay in that position all day?" he asked himself. "The time for thinking is over. Time to get into action." The red echidna whisked his way towards the secret palace teleportors. "I pray he doesn't know about these things," he thought as he entered into a large purple circle. A light blue and white energy emitted from the circle and surrounded the echidna. He closed his eyes as he let the psychoportative energy take effect. The light seeped into every molecule of the echidna, forcing his body to compress into a ball. The light erupted from the circle, sending Knuckles spinning through the vortex.

Time and space reformed around him. Knuckles' mind knew that the energy left him, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself standing on another circle, this time hundreds of feet above the palace in Lava Reef.

"He's here."

Knuckles stepped away from the teleportation circle and found himself on top of a rocky cliff, overlooking a sea of magma.

"There. That's him." Knuckles set his gaze on the magma sea's surface to discover a figure walking on the lava. The guardian narrowed his eyes, trying to get the best assessment of the intruder as he could. He saw that this person was humanoid in appearance. The cavern lighting would only allow for a black silhouette of his image.

Knuckles shook his head. "At this point, I can't even tell if it's a man or a woman." The lava walker clearly had long flowing hair that allowed the hot cavern air gently blow through it. "He" was wearing what looked like a white kimono. His clothing too appeared unharmed by the intense fiery heat.

"This isn't so weird," Knuckles thought to himself. "Tails was once telling me about designs for lava proof equipment. Someone must have gotten hold of that stuff. Still, why am I getting these weird vibes from this guy?"

"Something feels so…off," said something in the back of his mind.

The echidna wanted to spend more time examining the stranger, but that plan was ruled out when the mysterious stranger allowed himself to be fully submerged in the lava.

"Damn! I don't like this one bit. I've got to get back to the Master Emerald."

Knuckles returned to the Master Emerald shrine via the teleportation circle, but was shocked to see that the stranger beat him to it. In fact, this guy was standing right in front of the Emerald.

Under the emerald's green glow, Knuckles caught a glimpse of the mystery man's face. He was sure it was a man. The soft chuckle he let out as he stroked the Emerald's surface had be a man's. The man's soft voice was unsettling, but Knuckles' eyes widened in terror when he saw his face.

The man's skin was chalk white. Two yellow spheres with narrow slits served as the man's eyes. A malevolent smile rested on his face. He opened that mouth of his slightly to let his tongue slide out of his mouth. His tongue came to be at least five feet long and it continue dto grow. The man let his tongue slowly lick the Emerald.

"Do you know what this is?" the man asked, turning towards the echidna. "Power. Pure power."

"You're good, man," Knuckles said. "Not many humans have been able to get so close to the Master Emerald."

The man grinned and then let out a small chuckle. "Human, eh? Very few people would still see me as a human." He brushed aside his long jet black hair that was partially concealing his face. "Human," he mused. "A title every man would do well to abandon."

Knuckles pushed away the creepy feelings that radiated out of the man and started to think more about what the man's strengths and weaknesses. "This guy looks like he's got some good tricks, but he doesn't seem like the combat type. Maybe my fists can deal with this."

"All right, pal. You've made it this far. I'll give you that. But nobody can touch the Master Emerald without going through me."

"I take it that you are the guardian of this precious gem. Pity. Shouldn't the keeper of this great relic be having more fun?" the man asked in a seductive tone.

"There's nothing fun about my duty as a guardian, and as much as I might enjoy cleaning your clock right now, it's all part of my job."

"That is why you will lose," the man revealed a sinister grin.

"Enough!" Knuckles shouted. He slammed his fist into a nearby rock, making it shatter into powder. "I'm taking you down!"

Knuckles leapt into the air and swooped down towards the man with fists extended. In a blur, the man vanished. The echidna caught himself in mid flight and darted his eyes across the chamber for any sign of the man. He stood in the chamber, realizing that he was all alone.

"Now how could a human move that fast?" Knuckles let himself blink. And when his eyes opened, he saw him. The man appeared of nowhere and stood right in front of him. The man gave a sly smirk and smacked Knuckles with the back of his hand, sending the guardian flying across the chamber. His flight ended when he crashed into the cavern walls.

"Crap! Not only is he crazy fast, but he has to be strong, too."

"Fool," the man said mockingly. "You look like someone who takes things a little too seriously." The dazed echidna groaned as he lifted himself up and already got himself into a defensive stance as he saw the man approach him. "Guardian of the Master Emerald, huh? Such a heavy title. You must have such a heavy burden. Having to sit and watch that thing all day and all night."

"Who asked you?" Knuckles snapped.

"I'm just offering some friendly advice. You see, you're problem is that you have no appreciation for the very treasure which you devote your life to. You have no interest in discovering the infinite potential inside. You just strut around this island of yours. Your body is strong, I'll give you that. But you're mind and heart are weak."

"Shut up! You don't know anything about me!"

"Maybe not," the man nodded. "But you do know the truth of what you really desire. Why else would you be so infatuated with that bat thief?"

"I said shut up!" Knuckles yelled. He lunged straight at the man, hoping that he could connect a blow on him this time. The man didn't even try to dodge.

Knuckles' clawed fist was only centimeters away from the man's face, but a sudden jab to the echidna's stomach intercepted the attack and sent Knuckles back to kissing the floor.

"He didn't move a muscle. How did he get me?" A set of footsteps coming towards him gave the answer. There was a second guy. Judging from the pain in his chest and his breathing trouble, Knuckles guessed that this guy was strong, too.

Knuckles lifted up his face to meet his attacker. It was a young boy, probably no more than fifteen years old. The echidna almost felt relieved when he saw that the kid looked like a normal human. No white skin. No snakelike eyes. He was a human boy with black hair and black eyes. Most of his long, white shirt was opened, revealing his muscular chest. The little comfort that Knuckles had when seeing the boy were lost when he got the chance to stare into those eyes. The boy stared directly at Knuckles and he could do nothing, but look into those eyes. Knuckles felt as if those deep, onyx eyes were speaking to him, telling him a tragic story of hatred and vengeance.

Not letting his sights off of Knuckles, the boy began to make some odd hand motions that had no meaning to the echidna. Soon, the air became alive with lightning. Small lightning bolts began to zap and run through the chamber, dancing wildly with the Master Emerald. It all gathered into the kid's hand, where it formed into a ball of white and blue energy.

With his free hand, the boy lifted Knuckles into the air. His other hand looked ready to shove that crackling glob of energy right into his face. A move which Knuckles was sure would have devastating results.

The air grew hotter under the presence of all the lightning that shot around the chamber. The sound of the power crackling in the air played around in the echidna's ears. It sounded like a thousand birds were chirping in his head. The entire chamber was alight in a cool, blue aura.

"There's something about this energy," Knuckles thought. "It's strange, yet it feels so familiar."

"Shall I kill him now?" the boy asked coldly.

"No, Sasuke. Let him go," the man answered. "He is still useful to me."

"As you wish," the teenager mumbled. He loosened his grip, letting Knuckles drop to the ground. The electrical force that ran around his hand quickly faded away.

The man bent down to talk to Knuckles face to face. "This is your lucky day, guardian. I'm not here for your precious Master Emerald. It will be safe for now. I'm looking for the chaos emeralds. Do you know where they are?"

"Like I'd tell you," Knuckles didn't say the words so much as he spat them out.

The slits in the man's serpentine eyes contracted. Knuckles couldn't help but stare into them. He felt as if his very being was being pulled into those yellow eyes. His mind was screaming at him.

"Get away! Don't look into his eyes!"

Knuckles could barely make a sound. He was overcome by the sensation of a wave of invisible energy invade his mind and senses.

"My head! Get out of my head! Aaaahhhh!"

"Angel Island...it's gone. I can't feel its presence anymore. But I'm right here, aren't I? Standing right in the middle of the Hidden Palace. But no, I'm farther away than I've ever been before. This guy. He's taken me away somehow."

"Don't bother fighting it."

"I can't feel the soft grass of the hills like I always could. I can't see the azure skies like I always would. The crashing of the sea, the snowflakes in the ice caps. All those unique, exotic mushrooms, found only here. Gone. Even deep in my palace, I was able to attune myself to all these things. I was one with the island. But he's...separated us. I'm lost without it."

"Please...," whispered the echidna. "No more."

"Stand up," the man ordered.

"I can't."

An outside force took hold of his body and did the echidna's work for him.

"Please. Just...let me fall," Knuckles wheezed.

"Giving up already?" the man grunted. "I thought you had more in you than just that."

The man shoved Knuckles into the Master Emerald, then looked down on him, so that their eyes would meet again.

"Do you know what I could do if I had the power of the emeralds?" the man asked. "Do you know what I could become? Do you want to know?"

The Master Emerald began glowing and dimming erratically.

"The Master Emerald. It's resonating in a way I've never felt before. It's in pain. It's...afraid. This guy is scaring it."

Knuckles desperately wanted to turn his head to look at the emerald. He wanted to touch it, to calm it down, but there was no way to break the gaze of the man's glowing serpentine eyes.

"You guessed right, guardian. The emerald is in pain. Not from me, but from you. It doesn't want to be guarded. It is pained that you actually want to spend your whole life just standing by and watching. It wants you to take it and use it. A wise man would take that gem and use it to find the truth of this world."

The room darkened. The Emerald wasn't able to suffuse the chamber with its green glow like it normally would. Purple black flames manifested in the cave to offer its own unnatural light. The flames swam in the air, surrounding the stranger and the guardian.

Staring into those serpentine eyes, Knuckles heard the cries of hundreds of lost souls echoing in his head. Hundreds of people who were murdered. Their blood and spirits stolen to fuel the man's dark powers.

"What good is a soul if it's imprisoned for all eternity?" a thousand ghosts cried in unison.

"Look at me!" the man bellowed.

Knuckle's eyes were forced open and he was mortified at the sight before him.

A gargantuan snake stood before him. It had a ghostly aura to it, suggesting that it wasn't a real snake, but something else entirely. Whatever it really was, Knuckles couldn't take his eyes away.

"No. N-not real. Can't be real."

"No?" asked the man. His voice seemed to come from everywhere. "You're not convinced?"

The snake opened its mouth, letting out a hellish cry, revealing a gaping may filled with a myriad fangs. Knuckles cringed at the smell that must have come from rotted meat that never made it down the snake's throat. Venom dripped off every fang. The echidna's blood rushed away from his face, as if it knew it couldn't handle being poisoned. Knuckles was left as white as a sheet.

"If you can't tell me where the chaos emeralds are, then I'll extract that information myself."

A hideous, slimy forked tongue wriggled out of the maw and slithered its way towards the echidna.

"The chaossssss emeralds," hissed the serpent.

"I'm gonna get eaten."

The snake's otherworldly tongue licked Knuckles, drenching him in saliva. Smaller snakes started appearing and crawling along the big snake's tongue. They slithered towards Knuckles and began to attach themselves to every part of his body. One of them made its way right into Knuckles' mouth.

He gagged as the snake wormed its way down his throat hole. More snakes aimed for Knuckles' orifices. There was a snake of appropriate size for every hole. Two little ones snaked up his nostrils. Two smaller ones wriggled into his ears.

Knuckle's mind was blocked off from all thoughts by the hissing and slithering that went through his brain. He could sense the snakes crawling around in his brain. They wrapped their bodies around it, constricting his thoughts. They sank their venomous fangs into its soft, wrinkled flesh. The poison burned through the echidna, filling Knuckles with the foulest of venom, so potent that it melted his brain into jelly.

"Chaossssss emeralds," hissed the snakes in unison. The hissing echoed through his brain

The man could tell from his victim's gaunt expression that he was way past his limits, but that was no reason for him to end the torment.

One of Knuckles' eyes twitched uncontrollably. Something from inside his head bit into the back of his eye and ensnared that eyeball in its fanged jaws. The snake burst through his now empty eye socket and presented the sight of Knuckles' own gouged out eyeball to him. His other eye was left just so he would be able to see that. The snake then swallowed the eye and Knuckles was forced to watch as his own eyeball went down the snake's gullet.

The giant snake who overlooked it all finally spoke. "Sssssssonic the Hedgehog."

Knuckles' whole body convulsed and then collapsed onto the floor. His head was spinning from the agony. His mind tried to save itself in the only way it could. He let out the biggest, nastiest barf he possibly could. Dull green and yellow puke spilled out of his mouth, a flow of blood followed with a bunch of snakes getting spewed out with it. Knuckles passed out into the pool of his own vomit. The snakes, with their mission accomplished, disappeared into the ether, along with anything they did to the echidna.

"Illusions suck. Don't they, guardian?" the man asked. "These genjutsus have such great effects on mindless animals. I'm finished now, but don't ever forget the name of the one who sent you to Hell. My name is _Orochimaru_."

"Do you know where the chaos emeralds are now?" Sasuke asked, not looking very interested in what just happened.

The man calmly walked towards the exit of the Hidden Palace and motioned for Sasuke to follow. "Yes. We must find Sonic the Hedgehog and his friend, Tails."

* * *

"It's been awhile since I've been back to the Floating Island," Rouge the Bat said to herself as she wandered through the wilds of Mushroom Hill Zone. "Let's see. I know Knux keeps that secret entrance around here somewhere." She turned over various mushrooms in search of the key. "Come on, Knuckles. Don't make it so hard for your girlfriend to find you. I'm the one who should be playing hard to get." She uprooted a multicolored mushroom and found a metallic pad lying under it. "Gotcha," she announced triumphantly.

Rouge pressed the pad to see a wooden panel slide open, revealing a staircase leading underground. The bat felt a soft golden glow emanate from the underground passage. She smiled because she knew all too well what it was.

After reaching the bottom of the staircase, Rouge find herself standing in front of a huge glistening power ring, rotating in midair. She licked her lips as she extended her arm to touch the magic ring. "Hidden Palace, here I come." Upon contact with the ring, Rouge and the golden band disappeared, leaving a glitter of magical sparks behind them.

Seconds later, a beam of light descended into Hidden Palace chamber. Rouge emerged out of the beam. "It's good to be back!" proclaimed the bat. "Yoo Hoo! Knuckie boy, where are you?" She hollered.

Rouge's face turned from a look of amusement to horror when she found her echidna boyfriend lying face down on the cavern floor in a puddle of his own blood and vomit.

"OH, MY GOD! KNUCKLES!" she screeched.

Rouge beat her leathery wings and swooped down to Knuckles' body. She turned him over to get his face out of the muck. She immediately checked his pulse and breathing. "He's dying!" she choked. Those words hit a part of her heart that she so rarely got in touch with. "Hang on, Knux. I'll save you!"

Rouge pounded on the echidna's chest as hard as she could. "Wake up, Knuckles," she protested. "I'm not letting you die. You hear me? You're a survivor. You have to live!" Tears that she could have sworn were boiling hot started flowing from her eyes.

She bent down and placed her mouth over his, pouring her air into his lungs. "Listen to me, Knux. You're going to make it out of this one." She stroked her hands along his cheeks. Knuckles' skin felt cold to the touch.

"Knuckles, whoever did this to you, I swear they'll pay!" Rouge turned her thoughts to vengeance, but pulled away from them right away. "Thinking about that won't help him right now. There will be plenty of time to think about that later if Knuckles should…NO!" Rouge shut her eyelids tight and smacked her head. "Don't you dare think like that!"

The bat turned her focus back to Knuckles. "Listen to me, Knux. You're the strongest warrior I know. You can't leave like this."

Knuckles showed no change.

"DAMN IT! DON'T DIE, YOU BASTARD!" Rouge screamed, pounding on his chest with every ounce of her strength. Her cries echoed through the chamber walls. When the echoes died down, she too fell silent. "If you die, I'll be all alone," she said in almost a whisper.

Rouge had never seen Knuckles in such a vulnerable state. As she stared down at her dying lover, her heart tore itself apart, sapping every bit of energy she had out of her. She dropped down onto Knuckles and wrapped her arms around him. She had to force the words out of her dry mouth. "Please…I love you," she sobbed. The cave grew so silent that one could hear the ripples made from the dripping of Rouge's tears into Knuckles' blood.

Orochimaru and Sasuke both slowly hiked through the island's forest. They had no need to fear any pursuers.

"Prepare yourself, Sasuke. We must head to the Mystic Ruins to find the chaos emeralds."

"You seem to know this place pretty well, Orochimaru-sama."

Orochimaru let out another chuckle. "Of course I do. After all, this isn't my first trip to Mobius."

**Chapter 1 is done! Thanks for reading! I hope you all liked it so far. Stick around and you'll see pretty much the entire Naruto cast appear in the upcoming chapters. In the meantime, please review and tell me what you think. Especially you Naruto fans. Comments, critiques, questions, and suggestions are all welcome and encouraged.**

**See ya next chapter!**


	2. Troublesome Encounters

**Hi! I'm back with another update. Sorry if it's been too long. I went back to college after finishing the first chapter, but I'll update every chance I get. Especially since a lot of you want me continue. You've all made me very excited to write this, and I'm gonna do just that, but first, the holy reviewer responses!**

**Captain Deoxys: I had a feeling you'd be the first reviewer! You and your Kyuubis and Juggernauts! Thanks so much for being a fan! Are we all gonna die? Some of us might, but not before Knux and Rouge get a chance to share their feelings. If he can survive, that is.**

**Tails and Cream: Wow! I'm impressed you liked the story even though you don't know Naruto. I'm amazed that you even faved it. I hope you continue to stick around, even though it's intended for Naruto fans. I guess you could consider this a normal story, just with a ton of OCs. You might find the next chapters confusing, but at its heart, it's a story with Tails as the main character and there will be a little TailsxCream stuff too, if you like that.**

**Lycropath: You love it? Awesome! That makes me so happy! Thanks for the compliment on Orochimaru. I'm trying to show how evil a badass he can get. Good to see it's working. I like your pairing suggestions. I too am a big fan of NaruHina and ShikaTem. We may definitely be seeing some of that.**

**Blue Mage Quartet: Thanks! Glad I exceeded your expectations. For a second, I thought you were gonna do a Monty Python thing there.**

**Rouge: Knuckles! Please don't die.**

**Knux: I'm not dead yet!**

**Rouge: Yes, you are. (sobs)**

**Knux: No, really. I think I'm fine.**

**Rouge: You'll live on in my heart forever.**

**Knux: But I'm alive right here.**

**Rouge: Knux! Stop ruining the tragic scene.**

**Knux: In fact, I'm all better.**

**Rouge: (shoots Knux in the head, killing him.) Knuckles! Nooooooo! (cries)**

**Angelus-alvus: Thanks for reviewing! I'm glad you like the idea. It is a pretty cool idea, isn't it? I haven't got everything figured out yet, but keep reading and see how it all unfolds.**

**Azngirlchibi: Thanks for saying it's awesome. I'm pleased you liked the gory descriptions. If I grossed you out, then good. That's what I intended. Mwahahahaha! Not every chapter is gonna be as gross as the first one, but you can expect some heavy violence every now and then.**

**Maverick 87: Awesome! Thanks for showing the love, man. Hearing that makes me want to continue to do my best to create as awesome a story as I can. We'll see just how amazing we can make this story.**

**SasuukeAkzakura: Thanks for the review, my friend. I promise I will continue. In fact, I'm going to continue this… right now.**

**Silver Horror: Now that's a review that made my day! Coolx3! Awesome. I hope you continue to like it and I hope to make this fic aspire to greater heights of coolness.**

**Melody's last song: Thanks! I'm so pleased that you enjoyed everything. Sorry if the snake imagery was too disturbing. If at any point things get too nasty for you, go ahead and tell me to tone it down. Oh, and I had no idea that you were also doing a Naruto/Sonic story. But yeah, good luck with that and all your stories.**

**And with that, let's kick it old school style!**

**Chapter II: Troublesome Encounters**

**Konoha-The Hidden Village of Leaves, Fire Country 6:00AM**

"Shikamaru! Wake up!"

"No. It's too troublesome."

"I said get your lazy ass up!" a female's voice yelled. It was followed by the hard thud of something heavy and metallic pounding into the tree that he was sleeping under.

The girl's voice and the vibrations of her big weapon forced Shikamaru, Konoha's number one lazy ninja to jump to his feet. He looked up to meet his attacker. It turned out to be someone he was well acquainted with.

Temari, the wind ninja from the hidden village of Sand was a dangerous girl. The weapon in her hand was a man sized fan that served as the focus of her deadly techniques that could create winds as strong as a hurricane. Those slashing winds could cut through anything. Shikamaru was privileged to see these techniques first hand. She was known to use them whenever she got angry.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru thought. "She looks angry now."

"Do you know how badly I could hurt you?" the blonde ninja threatened with a sly smile.

"Heh. All I know is how much like my mom you sound like," Shikamaru quipped.

"Does your mom give you spankings?" Temari shot back.

"No, because that's such a troublesome form of discipline. She just nags a lot."

"Well, then prepare yourself for a lot of nagging," which is exactly what Temari was already doing. She was even waving her finger in the air. "The Hokage is waiting for you and sent me out to look for you, so I see the lazy dumbass lying under a tree. I can't believe you were lazy enough to fall asleep on the way over. You have no idea how pissed off she is."

"I'll just bet she is. That troublesome old hag." Shikamaru yawned and went back to resting under the tree. He placed his arms behind his head, using them as a pillow. "She pisses me off also."

"You could get in a lot of trouble for saying that. If we ever got married, I'd make sure you'd never mouth off like that," Temari nagged, waving her finger.

"First she talks about punishment and now marriage? She certainly likes to bring up troublesome topics."

"Gaara is waiting there, too. Thatmeans you're making two kages angry. Jeez, there's only like, five Kages in the whole world. It's only seven in the morning. You'll have every Kage in the world on your case by noon at this rate."

"Gaara?" Shikamaru had to admit that he didn't want to get on the nerves of Temari's little brother, the super powerful Gaara of the Sand. "He's beyond troublesome. He's scary."

"They're still waiting. You coming or not?"

Shikamaru jumped to his feet and stretched with a yawn. "Yeah, let's go. I don't need to be any later than I already am."

Temari laughed. "You don't have to worry too much. That runt, Naruto is supposed to show up to the meeting also, and he's missing too."

Shikamaru let out a depressed sigh. "Naruto's coming?" The thought made him roll his eyes. "This is going to be such a noisy mission. What are the details, anyway?"

"Something from the Sand village's secret treasury was stolen. It was a newly acquired thing so I don't know exactly what the importance of it was. They called it a "chaos emerald" or something. I don't know. It responds to people's chakra. All we can be sure of is one thing."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"Sasuke took it."

Shikamaru's eyes widened. "You mean you found him?"

"Not exactly. We came to Konoha for help in tracking him down."

"Well, where did he go?"

"Somewhere off this planet."

-------------------

The Hidden Palace, Master Emerald Shrine

"What have I been doing all this time?" Rouge looked down on Knuckles' body with eyes welled with tears.

"Who did I think I was acting like the tough girl, not even once showing my true feelings? You probably never knew how much I really cared for you."

The Master Emerald continued to resonate, lighting up the chamber with its emerald glow, then sending the cave back into darkness.

Rouge's eyes beamed at the Emerald. As she focused on the glowing gem, she gritted her teeth.

"I thought this was the treasure that mattered most to me. I thought that if I had all the jewels in the world, that would make me happy. How could I have been so stupid?"

Rouge stepped up to the Master Emerald and rubbed her hand along its etched surface. "Knuckles talks to you a lot, doesn't he? I've watched him do it."

She waited to see if she could get a response from the Emerald.

"Do you ever talk back? Can he hear you?"

No answer from the Emerald.

"If you have any sentience at all, then you know that Knuckles gave everything he had for you. Are you going to just sit there and watch your only guardian die? Huh?"

The Master Emerald's green glow deepened. Its rhythm changed slightly. It answered Rouge's questions by sending a small surge of chaos energy up her arm and into her head. She wasn't getting any clear messages from the emerald. It only added to her frustration.

"STUPID ROCK!" Rouge shouted, kicking the Master Emerald off its pedestal, causing in to crash onto the stone floor.

"What the Hell is the point of all this cosmic crap anyway? I want Knuckles back! You owe it to him." Her voice started to croak. "He protected you," More tears fell out of her eyes. They glistened a light clear green from reflecting the light of the Emerald.

"This is all my fault, Knux. Maybe if I told you how much you really meant to me, you would have something else to live for other than guarding this place. I would have taken you away from this island and we could've been happy together." A weak smile formed on Rouge's lips as she pictured her dream of living with Knuckles. "You could've given up this guardian business, but then, I too gave in to the allure of the emeralds. I lost sight of what really matters. I should have shown you my true feelings."

"It's better that you didn't," said a voice coming from the darkness.

Rouge span around abruptly, "Who's there?" She tried to force her tears back into her. The last thing she needed was for an enemy to see her weak.

"Showing your feelings just makes things more complicated," he continued while he stepped out of the shadows. He revealed himself to be a black and red hedgehog.

"Shadow? I never expected to see you again. Did you know about this?"

"My chaos powers tell me whenever something's unusual about the flow of chaos energy. Just recently, I've been sensing some unusual activity with the Master Emerald. There's been an incredible disturbance. I just came to see for myself, but I've got no time to stay and chat. I'll need to speak to that faker."

"What? You're leaving already?"

"Things are going to get very troublesome. I've wasted enough time here."

"Wait," Rouge protested. "You can't just leave yet, what about Knuckles?"

"He was the first. He was just unlucky," he said without a hint of compassion in his voice.

Rouge grabbed Shadow by the arm and pulled him towards Knuckles. "But you can help him. Use your powers. See if you can heal him."

Shadow broke Rouge's grip and backed away. "I've never done anything like that before, and there's no time for me to play around. We need to stay on the move."

"Playing around?" Rouge went livid. "The person I care most about in the world is going to die, and you're his last hope. That's hardly playing around!"

"Not my problem," the black hedgehog responded while walking away.

"I can't believe you! After everything we've been through together. Do you have any idea what I feel like right now? Don't you have someone that's important to you? Don't you know what it's like to lose someone like that?"

"Maria...," Shadow whispered too faintly for Rouge to hear.

Taking in Rouge's words and remembering that name, he stared up at nothing in particular, as if he was looking at something far away.

"And if he dies, I'm blaming it on you!" the bat added with an accusing finger.

Shadow just shrugged and sighed. "Fine. Put the Master Emerald back where it belongs."

The bat hurriedly recovered the Emerald and returned to its place on the pedestal. Shadow lifted Knuckles and laid him down adjacent to the Emerald. Shadow's red eyes quickly scanned the echidna's body. "Only a few physical injuries. It's Knuckles' mind that's been severely wounded."

"What does that mean?" Rouge asked worriedly.

"It means that this makes things more difficult than a physical injury. I'm going to infuse his brain with a steady dose of chaos energy. Hopefully, it should be able to override whatever contaminated his mind. If it works, his head should be clear enough so that he can get back to breathing properly."

"What if that doesn't work?"

"His head will explode," Shadow said very nonchalantly.

Rouge grimaced at the thought of her Knux's head getting blown up. "All right. Do that. Just be careful."

"Sure. I got it," Shadow said. Rouge detected a slight smile on Shadow's lips when he said that. It vanished as quickly as it came, but the bat made sure to register that in her memory as one of the more unusual things she saw today.

Shadow shut his eyes, gently placed one hand on Knuckles' forehead and breathed deeply. A yellow surge of chaos energy formed in the hedgehog's hand and he directed it to flow into the echidna's head. Rouge looked on with her hands clasped together.

Shadow opened up one eye, which locked on Rouge. He saw her clasping her hands over heart and she seemed to be whispering something intently. "Is she praying? That's very interesting." He shut his eye and redirected his concentration to his echidna patient. He visualized the flow of energy seeping into every corner of Knuckles' brain. The gray matter went alight with the presence of Chaos. It reached every cell, mingling with the electrical signals sent by the neurons.

The black hedgehog could see and feel all of Knuckles' thoughts and memories as their energies joined together. He paid particular attention to the most recent memories.

"Pain. A lot of pain."

"Serpents from a realm of nightmares."

"Snakes. Swarming everywhere."

"Teeth coursing with venom."

"Strangers from another world."

"Powers unlike anything seen before."

"A boy with a heart full of hate and eyes set on vengeance."

"A madman with slitted, yellow eyes of malice."

"Orochimaru, the Snake Lord."

"Their ambition to kill anything in their way."

"A guardian's last stand."

"His failure."

"A bat lover pouring out her true feelings. The sorrow, the remorse, the fear of death's hovering sword, threatening to kill all her hopes and dreams. Her important person."

"So, his subconscious is still aware."

Sweat poured down Shadow's brow. Even just sharing these memories was stressful. Shadow could only imagine what it must have been like for Knuckles. He sensed the snakes that had delivered the "venom" that took Knuckles out. Their presence still lingered in his psyche.

As the chaos energy reacted with the twisted chakra that birthed the snakes, Shadow heard the constant hissing enter his own head. The snakes screamed and then vaporized into clouds of dark, purple smoke. The smoke surrounded both the hedgehog and the echidna, swirling around them, engulfing them both and the Master Emerald in a miasma of black and purple.

"Shadow! What's going on?" Rouge cried. She rushed up to the Master Emerald stand with short breaths. Her hand reached out to touch the clouds, but she never made it through. The clouds erupted into a whirlwind that pushed her back. Rouge was left with no choice but to do the one thing she hated. Waiting.

The dark whirlwind swirled faster and faster. Rouge had no idea if this was a good sign or a bad sign. Everything was happening so fast, so many thoughts ran through her head.

"He's going to die."

"No! He's going to live."

"His head's going to blow up."

Meanwhile, her heart too was racing. "Fight it, Knuckles. You have to fight it!" she cried from the depths of her heart.

Inside the whirlwind, Shadow heard Rouge's pleas. They were echoing through Knuckles' mind. Shadow wasn't sure why or how, but he felt his control over it all improving.

"It's Rouge. Her words. They're giving Knuckles strength somehow."

Knuckles' head went ablaze with a storm of chaotic energy. The forces pushed Shadow this way and that way. He tightened his hand on Knuckles, trying his hardest to keep the situation as stable as possible. "Hold on…just a little bit… more."

-------------------

Inside Knuckles' Head

The chaos energy opened up the door to the deepest reaches of Knuckles' mind. Shadow found himself moving beyond Knuckles' memories. He entered Knuckles' subconscious realm.

That's when he saw it.

It was Knuckles. The very core of his psyche, anyway.

Shadow saw Knuckles struggling. He was caught in the vise of a monstrous constrictor snake. Behind the snake was a void of utter blackness. Shadow was sure that if Knuckles went in there, he would be lost forever. He swam through the astral space with hopes of releasing Knuckles from the serpent's grasp.

"This snake. It's the manifestation of Orochimaru's cursed chakra," Knuckles' subconscious spoke weakly. "There's no breaking it."

"That's not true," said Shadow's mind. "I can free you. I just need a little more power. I need…" Shadow's thoughts were cut off by an otherworldly presence coming from behind him. Something came towards Shadow and Knuckles. It was an angel, bathed in golden and silvery light. Shadow struggled to look at the celestial being before him, but his eyes were blurred by the intense glow.

"No! Stay away!" demanded the serpent.

"Whatever this is, it looks good," thought Shadow.

Then he realized what stood before him.

It was Rouge. She hovered there in the form of angel. Her leathery wings were complimented by a pair of huge feathery wings of the purest shining white. On her angelic face was a look of complete serenity. Her heavenly rays shined down lovingly upon Knuckles. They seemed to be bringing life into him.

Knuckles stared up at Angel Rouge. "Rouge, you're so beautiful. More beautiful than ever before. I wish I could get to look at you more often."

"Knuckles," Angel Rouge spoke. "I am the form of the eternal love that exists between us. It is the one thing that can free you from the serpent's hold." Angel Rouge spoke to Shadow without breaking her gaze from Knuckles. "Shadow, keeps the constant flow of chaos energy going. I'm going to end this now."

Angel Rouge reached out to Knuckles her arms. She smiled a smile that could not come from a mortal. As she drew closer, Knuckles' voice grew stronger. "You smell nice, Rouge."

"I'm taking you out of this Hell, Knux. Then, we can be together once again." Their arms connected together and Angel Rouge pulled Knux away from the snake.

"Just a little bit longer," Shadow told himself while continuously pouring the chaos energy into Knuckles' head.

-------------------

Moments later, the purple winds died down. Inside the settling mist, Rouge made out the shape of Shadow. While the mist cleared away, Shadow stood there in the midst of it all, out of breath. He looked down to see Rouge with her eyes shut tight and her fingers plugged into her ears. "She must have no idea what I saw in there. If only she knew."

"Hey, Rouge," he called to her. "Snap out of it."

Rouge looked up to see Shadow standing in the midst of the slowly fading purple fog. He had a sorrowful look on his face.

"Listen to me Rouge," he said solemnly. "Knuckles the Echidna…," he paused to think of what to say next.

"Yes? What happened?"

Shadow took a deep breath and started again. "Knuckles the Echidna is gone…"

Rouge's entire world shattered. Any tears she was holding in began flooding forth. Her heart tore itself apart. Her limbs gave up, leaving her dropping to the floor. Her violet eyes went blank, devoid of any emotion.

"No…," she mouthed that word, but she couldn't make a sound. "It can't be…"

"…from lying at death's door to being safely out of danger," Shadow finished.

Rouge stopped crying immediately.

"WHAT!"

Life once again returned to her eyes. In fact, her eyes were practically on fire. She furiously stepped up to face Shadow. The way her feet stomped on the ground told Shadow that she intended to do something very painful.

"You should've let me finish," Shadow said. A slight smile curled around his mouth. If anyone blinked, they would've missed it. "Didn't I tell you it was better not to get all emotional? It just messes you up."

"Don't you ever pull something like that off, you son of a bitch!" Rouge yelled, grabbing Shadow's neck. "You really are one dark, nutcase. A sick, cruel, angsty, gothic, unloving, twisted psychopath! And not only that, but…you saved his life didn't you?" the bat finished, letting go of her grip on Shadow.

"Yeah. Knuckles is out of danger."

The dark clouds completely dissipated, revealing Knuckles the Echidna lying peacefully in front of the Master Emerald. His chest showed the signs of his rhythmic breathing. Color returned to his body.

Rouge's eyes gazed at Knuckles for a very long time. Her eyes were watery and looked ready to burst again, but this time, her eyes were filled with tears of joy.

"So like I said, I'm running out of time," Shadow interrupted. "I have to go find out what's going on." Once again, he started to leave.

"Wait," the bat girl called again.

"What now?" he replied in an aggravated tone.

"Is Knuckles going to wake up?" she asked, pointing at the unconscious Knuckles.

Shadow shrugged again. "I don't know when he'll wake up. All I was able to do was keep him from dying. He's still in a coma, though. Maybe he'll never wake up."

"You saying he's a vegetable?" Rouge couldn't believe Shadow. He had about as much empathy as Sonic had humility.

"Like a tomato," Shadow said in a matter of fact tone. "Hmph," The hedgehog chuckled. "He looks just like one, doesn't he?"

Rouge threw her arms up in the air. "That's just great. Now what am I supposed to do?"

"We'll take him with us. Maybe we can cure him on the way."

"You really think so?" Rouge's eyes lit up at the thought.

"Sure. Now these guys are looking for the chaos emeralds. I've got two on me, so we're sure to run into them anytime. Still, we'd better find the others before more people end up like Knux other there."

"Where do you think they're headed to next?"

"The faker and Tails both have chaos emeralds. They'll likely go for Tails next."

"Sounds good. Let's get to the Mystic Ruins, then."

"Before we go, let me ask you something,"

"What?"

"About whoever did this to Knuckles. Well…"

"Well what?"

"Are you feeling vengeful?" he asked. A gun appeared out of thin air in Shadow's hand and he started twirling a pistol around his finger.

"You better believe it." She replied confidently.

"Good. Use it," Having said those words, Shadow tossed a handgun to Rouge.

"So you can use chaos control to teleport weapons now?" Rouge asked with great interest.

"Yeah. It's a handy ability. I think we're going to need every advantage we can get this time. It seems that we're going to be dealing with a lot of weirdoes," he said while loading another handgun. "For this reason-"

"Look out, Shadow!" Rouge shrieked. Shadow turned to see a six foot long snake, mouth wide open, fangs bared, and sailing straight for him.

Shadow pointed the barrel of his gun towards the snake and let a bullet from his gun catch the thing in midair. It resulted in an explosion of ectoplasm that quickly evaporated into purple mist.

"Illusions that are quasi-real," Shadow analyzed. "That could drive anybody nuts."

"I hate snakes!" Rouge spat.

"A lot of weirdoes," Shadow repeated that thought to himself.

-------------------

**Chapter 2 done! There, that resolved what happened to Knuckles and Rouge. Now to move on to the other characters.**

**Next Chapter: Shikamaru and Temari meet up with Naruto and the rest of the Konoha Eleven. Oh, yeah. And Tails, too! Yeah, I'll bet you've been waiting for him. I'm already writing Chapter 3, so it'll be around sometime. In the meantime, please review this one.**

**Shikamaru: Hmmph. Nobody's going to leave reviews. It's too troublesome.**

**Temari: Why won't they? You didn't like this chapter?**

**Shikamaru: It introduced a lameass like me. Nobody's interested in reading about me.**

**Temari: Really? You'd be surprised by how many Shikamaru fangirls there are there.**

**Shikamaru: Not as many as Sasuke.**

**Sasuke: Hey, I'm in the next chapter! (Fangirls cheer)**

**Shikamaru: Not if I was writing this. Updating is so troublesome.**

**Sonic: Where's my fangirls?**

**Shadow: They're mine, faker.**

**Amy: I'll be your fangirl, Sonikku! (chases Sonic)**

**Sonic: Nooooooooo!**

**Shikamaru: So these are the characters we're supposed to team up with? Thinking about them pisses me off. If I could review, I'd leave a flame.**

**Temari: Isn't that just too troublesome?**

**Shikamaru: …yes. Yes it is. Forget it. (Sighs) See you next chapter, everyone.**


	3. The Swords of Heaven and Earth

**Another chapter of The Kitsune in the Leaves coming at you, starring everyone's favorite hedgehogs, foxes, ninjas, and demons! A late update I know, but I didn't want to take it out until it was ready. Can't wait to tell you what happens next, but first, let me respond to those reviews!**

**Azngrlchibi: A tomato is a fruit? No way! It doesn't taste like one! I guess that makes Knux a radish or something. Anyways, it looks like I got mixed results on the angel thing. All right then, (cuts out Angel Amy, Angel Cream, Angel Sakura, Angel Shadow…?) just kidding. But seriously, it's good you liked Shadow. A super nice shadow would indeed be scary.**

**Blue Mage Quartet: Ah. The old fake the character's death trick. Maybe I'll have to do that more often. But for now, Knux is alive and well, except he's a veggie. And yeah, the fact that the sand ninjas are all siblings is little known knowledge. It took me awhile to notice it, too.**

**Maverick87: You don't have to wait anymore, man! By the time you read this, chap 3 will already be up. You can see it below you. Lots of Tails action in this chapter and much more later! I know how much you love seeing the poor guy get messed with, so I think you'll like what you're about to read!**

**captain deoxys: Shadow and Mandy, huh? I never though of it that way before, but you're right. Personally, I don't mind Inner Sakura. It's pretty hard to eat a part of someone's mind, but hey, weirder things have happened in Naruto. But back on topic, Shadow will be kicking a lot of ass in this story, so Temari better not get in his way!**

**Lycropath: Temari is only teasing at this point. The real romance is something that will develop later. If you ask me, I felt that Temari had feelings for Shikamaru ever since the Sasuke Retrieval arc. Keep reading to see it all turn out. I'm glad you really like it! I'd give you a happy closed eyes anime face, but those things don't appear on these pages.**

**Damo and His Alter Ego: Youch! Struck three times by lightning! And by Shadow, too! I will continue, if only to save you from Shadow's wrath. In the meantime, seek shelter. One month can't be that bad, right? Luckily, Shadow is a good guy in this story. For now, anyway…**

**Asher Tye: Thanks for reviewing! It's cool that you just got into Naruto. You'll love it and I hope you like this, too. Seeing as it's not my way to commit crimes, I will continue.**

**Angelus-alvus: As you can, see, I updated. This is the result. If you ever notice I'm not updating, I leave it in your hands to remind me! Oh, and Xiaolin Showdown rocks. I just got into it. Just wanted you to know that. Maybe I'll read some of those fics sometime.**

**Melody's Last Song: Yeah, who would've thought Shadow could be such a kidder? Angsty, black hedgehogs have to joke around too, you know. Keeps the fangirls distracted!**

**Tails and Cream: I'm as excited as you are that Tails is coming! He's my favorite character to write about! He debuts in the second half of this chapter in a humongous fight scene! I hope you like it!**

**Silver Horror: Still going cool, eh? Great! I hope I can keep that up!**

**TC-chan: Thanks! Glad you liked everything. To answer your question, this all takes place after Naruto and Sakura encounter Sasuke and Orochimaru, but before Naruto goes and trains to learn his ultimate jutsu because I started writing this before reading that. Just remember that it's an alternate universe, so some parts might deviate from the manga.**

**All right! Twelve reviews! Thanks so much to all you guys. More reviewer responses make the page look more festive, so please keep reviewing! But now, let's mambo!**

**Chapter III: The Swords of Heaven and Earth**

Shikamaru glanced around the Hokage's office. "Looks like just about everyone's here," he confirmed. He was leaning casually in the corner of the door with Temari at his side.

Across the room in the opposite corner stood Gaara the Kazekage, complete with his sand gourd on his back. "Looking as badass as always I see," Shikamaru joked to himself.

Next to Shikamaru was his best friend and teammate, Akimichi Chouji. The chubby ninja was merrily munching away on a bag of BBQ potato chips.

Nearby, Akamaru, Inuzuka Kiba's pet dog, greedily eyed Chouji's snack and started whining. "Hey, Akamaru. You can't have any chips. They're bad for you and you're getting fat enough as it is," Kiba scolded the big dog while poking his white belly.

"You should really put that dog on a diet, Kiba," Yamanaka Ino, Konoha's number one loudmouth ninja girl, and Shikamaru's third teammate butted in.

"You could try Ichiraku's new diet ramen for pets," Aburami Shino the usually silent bug expert chimed in. "I actually feed it to my bugs. It is healthy and increases their fertility rate."

"Fertility rate?" Kiba asked quizzically. "You don't say. Still, I don't like the idea of feeding ramen to Akamaru. He'll become addicted and then he'll start acting like Naruto."

Upon hearing that name, Hyuuga Hinata, the shy girl who had a crush on Naruto started to blush. "N-naruto-kun. He's supposed to c-come here today, isn't he?" she asked, twiddling her fingers nervously.

"Yeah," Shikamaru grumbled. "He should be coming in any minute."

As if on cue, Uzumaki Naruto, Konoha's number one noisy ninja burst through the door of the Hokage's office. "What the Hell is this!" the blonde, orange and black clad ninja screamed, forcing Shikamaru to plug his ears. "Granny Tsunade! Tell me you're kidding! Sasuke fled to another universe?"

Temari lifted up her giant fan and applied it forcefully to Naruto's skull. "OW! What was that for?" he complained, rubbing the bump on his head.

"It's for being a spaz, Naruto," Shikamaru answered the question for Temari. "Honestly, how could anyone be so noisy in the morning?"

Tsunade, the fifth Hokage of Konoha, who was until this point lazily turning through a pile of papers, got up and addressed everyone. "Naruto, it is true that Sasuke, along with Orochimaru, have left to another world and we're meeting here this morning to formulate a plan, but tell me," she looked angrier now, "you weren't supposed to find out until after arriving here. Who's the loudmouth who told you that?"

"It was I who briefed Naruto on this mission, Tsunade!" exclaimed Maito Gai, the jounin better known as Konoha's Green Beast. He leapt into the office with a dramatic kick in the air, followed by his favorite student, Rock Lee who copied him in nearly every way. The other members of Team Gai, Tenten and Hyuugi Neji followed in, looking very embarrassed.

"Gai, I'm glad you found Naruto and brought him here, but it was stupid to reveal important information like that so early on," Tsunade scolded him.

"Many apologies, Hokage-sama! My youthful lips were difficult to keep closed from my beloved students and their comrade," Gai explained.

Feeling that he calmed Tsunade's anger, Gai turned is attention to his rival, Hatake Kakashi, whose eyes were immersed in his book this whole time. "Ah! My hip and cool rival continues to read his perverted literature! I hope you have almost finished with that, because soon we must have our next rematch."

"Settle down, Gai," Kakashi said dryly, not looking up from his book. "There'll be plenty of time for that after everyone heads off to the other universe."

"What!" Naruto started freaking out again. "We're actually going to do that?"

"Maybe now I should start explaining everything in detail," Tsunade said. "Now then, does everyone know how the fourth Hokage became known as Konoha's Yellow Flash?"

Everyone just shrugged, so Tsunade went on. "He was the fastest shinobi that had ever lived, but it was not through his training or genius alone that he earned that title. He had the help of some of these," she then reached into her desk and revealed before the crowd a glowing, golden ring. Everyone, marveled at the sight before them.

"Through this 'power ring,' one can increase their speed to unbelievable levels. There are beings on the ring's native world that are rumored to have reached godlike speed. The Yondaime was one of the few who learned the secrets of opening the hidden gates of time and space. He found the world of the rings and actually spent time training there."

"And what do they call this troublesome world, anyway?" Shikamaru asked.

"It is called Mobius," replied Tsunade. "And this is where you're mission will take you. We have learned that Orochimaru and Sasuke are on Mobius even as we speak. He's gathering the resources he needs to make his next move. When he returns, Konoha won't stand a chance."

"So they want to gather rings and become super fast, huh?" Naruto butted in.

"I'm afraid it's worse than that, Naruto," Tsunade spoke, her voice become graver. "Orochimaru is after a rarer, far greater power source. They're called chaos emeralds. Seven in total, each emerald contains a tremendous amount of chakra."

"A tremendous amount of chakra…" Naruto mouthed the words in awe.

"I don't have to explain what will happen if he has all seven chaos emeralds."

"I will get what I want…and this time I will completely destroy Konoha," Orochimaru's bitter voice crept into her head.

"They have one chaos emerald already," the normally quiet Gaara spoke up. "Somehow, one of them mysteriously appeared in the Suna. Although we guarded it, Sasuke appeared almost immediately and stole it." His eyes narrowed at the mention of the missing nin's name.

Naruto clenched his fists and shook them. "Damn it, Sasuke? What are you trying to do?" Lately, any mention of Sasuke set Naruto off. He was still getting over his recent encounter with him.

"All right. Now that you've given us this troublesome information, how are we supposed to make it to Mobius?" Shikamaru just asked the question that was in everybody's mind.

"Naruto will take you there," the Hokage answered.

Naruto's blue eyes went blank and his jaw dropped. "Me? How am I supposed to do something like that?"

"Ha!" Kiba laughed. "Naruto as our guide? The only place he can get to without getting lost is the ramen bar. He can't even find his way to the jon." Akamaru barked in agreement.

"I'm very serious, Kiba," there was a gleam in Tsunade's eye. "Naruto is the only one who will be able to open the doorway to Mobius."

"I don't understand," Naruto said. How…?"

"You are the Yondaime's legacy," a voice from outside interrupted. "He has passed down his power to you."

Naruto identified voice as coming from outside the building window. In leaped an elderly ninja with long white hair and red paint under his eyes.

"Ero-sennin!" yelled out Naruto.

"The same," responded Jiraiya, the legendary frog hermit. "I guess he's never going to stop calling me that."

"Yo, Jiraiya-sama," Kakashi greeted. "When's the next Icha Icha volume coming out?"

"Not for awhile," the legendary ninja/erotic novelist replied. "I have a bad case of writer's block. Also, I haven't had the appropriate time to do my research-"

"Ahem," grunted an angry Tsunade. Jiraiya turned to see everybody glaring at himself and Kakashi.

"Oh, yeah." Jiraiya returned his mind back to the business at hand. "Naruto, before the Fourth gave away his life, he asked that one of his possessions be passed down to you."

"What did he pass down?"

"Oh," Jiraiya smirked. "You'll like it." He placed his palm onto the ground and shouted, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" (Summoning Technique.) A huge red toad entered in a puff of smoke.

"Uzumaki Naruto," the frog hermit announced dramatically. "I present to you the Sword of Izunagi, the Sword of the Earth!" The toad opened its maw and unrolled its pearl stubbed prehensile pink tongue. In the grasp of its tongue was a katana held inside a black sheath.

"Wow…That's for me?" Naruto asked, his cobalt eyes staring at the sword in awe.

"Go on. Take it," Jiraiya urged, wearing a very large grin. "It was created by the Yondaime himself! It has the power to cut through the barriers of chakra that separate worlds. Only a chosen one of the Hokage can wield it."

Naruto took the sword out of the frog's mouth and unsheathed it. He gazed intently at the sword. The silvery blade gleamed a yellowish light as he turned the blade over..

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Jiraiya asked, grinning. "Only one other sword like that exists in this world, the Sword of Kusunagi."

"That's Orochimaru's sword, isn't it? Sasuke had it last time. I guess this will make us even," Naruto said, staring intently at the blade.

"All right then, everyone," Tsunade said, breaking Naruto's brooding. "This is a Super S-rank mission. Even though most of you are only chounin, I think you're up to the task. You work very well together, and I know someone very personal is involved. Therefore, I trust that you will succeed. Good luck!"

"Thanks for the pep talk, Granny," Naruto chuckled and stabbed the sword through the air, pointing towards the horizon where the sun had just risen. The sunlight glistened along the sword, lighting up the room.

"All right!" Naruto hollered. "Let's go to Mobius!"

* * *

"Push it to the max!" yelled Tails to himself, forcing more power out his biplane's thrusters. The rocket in the back of the plane exploded with fiery life and sent Tails blasting through the clear blue skies, leaving the enemy robot fighter ships behind in a cloud of sparks and smoke.

"Three of Robotnik's robot planes and I've just got two missiles," Tails told himself. The black jets opened fire on the red biplane, heating the air up with bullets, lasers, and explosives. Tails easily rolled the plane in all the right ways to avoid the deadly barrage.

"Time to counterattack!" he announced and activated the missile launchers. Two rockets shot out from the Tornado and sailed through the air. The missiles themselves dodged all the incoming artillery thanks to Tails' built in smart defense systems. They struck the two closest fighters dead on, blowing them to bits of shrapnel that scattered everywhere.

The final fighter came closing in, unfazed. "Still one more. Come on, boy genius. Think of a way out of this."

"Lock on Target: Prepare to fire lasers," said the monotone voice of the robot controlled jet.

A chilling feeling told Tails that he would be shot out of the skies in any second. He twisted the biplane in a corkscrew and sent it straight into a nearby cloud. "This should keep it distracted for a little while."

"Observation: Target cloaked in dense cloud formation," the robot computed. "Activate infra red sensors."

Tails kept flying through the pure whiteness. The cool water vapor dampening his fur. There was something really cool about flying through a cloud, but he didn't get to enjoy it as much as he wanted to when he heard the sounds of the enemy's engines.

"Target's location reconfirmed: Resuming laser cannon activation."

The sound of an energy beam powering up drilled into Tails' ears. "It sees me! It has me in its sights!" The fox kept his ears up in anticipation for the oncoming attack, but he heard something else. The sound of something crashing into hard metal.

"Defense systems breached," said the robot plane. "Repeat: Defense systems brea-" Tails listened to a computer's voice crackling, circuits buzzing, and then, an explosion.

"It's destroyed!" Tails exclaimed. "I don't know how, but it looks like I'm safe-"

Once again, Tails heard the sound of the clanging of metal. This time it was much closer. This time, it was on the side of his own plane. He knew that he would need to take back his comment about being safe. Tails squinted to see into the haze of the clouds. He made out the shadowy from of a human.

As the Tornado burst out of the opaque clouds back into the crystal blue skies, Tails saw everything very clearly. There was a very long katana jutting out of the side of the plane. And that wasn't all. There was a guy who was calmly standing on top, easily balanced on the flat of the blade.

After staring up and down at the stranger, a black haired young man, the words "samurai" and "ninja" came to mind right away. Tails decided it would be a good idea to put the plane on autopilot.

Noticing that the vulpine wasn't sure what to say, he decided to begin the conversion. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I'm looking for one of these," he said, taking out a yellow chaos emerald. The sunlight glistened off the topaz gem, surrounding the emerald in a luminous golden radiance.

"So he got here using chaos control."

"I know you have your own chaos emerald. Give it to me now," Sasuke commanded.

"I can't really do that. It's my plane's power source. If I take it out, we all fall."

"I'll take my chances," Sasuke replied. "Now hand it over."

"Sorry," Tails answered. "Nothing doing. I just don't think it's a good idea to give chaos emeralds to people who stand on top of swords a couple thousand feet above the ground."

"Hn," Sasuke smirked slightly and vanished from sight, leaving the sword behind.

"What was that all about?" Tails asked, scratching his head. The fox's sharp ears picked up a flickering sound coming directly behind him. He spun around to see Sasuke, who swung his fist straight for his gut. Tails evaded the punch by jumping into the air and hovering above the ninja.

"Don't tell me you didn't know I could fly," Tails laughed.

"Interesting," Sasuke said. "I like your eyes. They remind me of him. Because I like that somewhat, I will introduce you to the power of the sharingan."

Sasuke simply closed his eyes. When they opened, Tails found a new set of eyes staring at him. They were now blood red, with three small black points, surrounding his black pupils. Tails felt mesmerized by this new set of eyes. The black points actually moved around inside his eye, like black tadpoles swimming in a pool of blood.

The mysterious ninja moved faster than before. In a split second, his fist crunched into Tails' jaw with a swift uppercut. The vulpine yelped out in pain, but his cries were dampened from the blood that he coughed out of his mouth. Sasuke then maneuvered above Tails and sent his foot heavily pounding into his skull, forcing Tails to slam head first onto the top platform of the Tornado.

As he struggled to get up, Sasuke joined him on the wing and pulled out a length of thin metal wire, which he swung towards the fox. Tails tried to get out of the way, but the wire caught his tails, binding them tightly together. "Now take a dive," Sasuke yelled as he kicked the hapless fox off the plane. "Stupid little fox," he said smugly. "That's what you get-"

"Who're you calling "stupid?'" wheezed Tails, who has riding along with the plane, dangling from the sword's handle, blood still dripping from his mouth and from a cut on his forehead.

Sasuke gave his signature eerie chuckle. "And what are you going to do now?" he asked smugly. "You're even worse than he was. A total dropout loser. Why don't you do this dumb universe of yours a favor and drop dead?"

"Damn! This is really bad!" Sasuke's sword was started to loosen from its crack in the plane and there was no way Tails would be able to untie the wires in time to save himself. Tails used all his strength and will to try to push the sword back in.

While trying to force the sword back in, Tails found that he couldn't take his eyes of his attacker. There was such ruthlessness in those black eyes. "You really intend to kill me, don't you?"

"I don't intend to kill you so much as I'm going to let die. It's disappointing really," Sasuke said "I wanted to test the power of the chaos emerald to see how it could react to my cursed seal, but I haven't needed to do so yet. Maybe this Sonic guy will be more challenging. I really can't imagine anyone being weaker than you."

The sword finally slid all the way out and Tails was left to plummet down to the earth. Sasuke waited to hear a scream, but everything was silent. "Maybe he died from shock?" he thought.

With the katana still grasped, Tails continued to fall. His tails still trapped in wire, he knew he needed another means of flight. And he had one…

All he had to do was wriggle out his tiny remote from his glove and push one button. At the click of that very button, a compartment from the bottom of the plane opened up and a yellow air board fell through.

"Now to bring it to me," another flick of a switch and the inert board came to life with a jet of green flame spewing from the back. The Yellow Tail, his signature air board, followed Tails coordinates and caught the fox, granting him the power of flight.

"All right, Sasuke! Now I'm ready for you!" cried an excited Tails. He directed the air board upwards back to the Tornado. Above him, Tails could see the ninja watching him with his strange eyes.

"Gotta accelerate! Go even faster!" Tails commanded himself, taking the cue from the adrenaline pumping through him. The Yellow Tail burned out more jet fuel, sending out a huge stream of green flame. "Go faster than ever before! Faster than Sonic!" The emerald flame stretched out to well over twenty feet, burning the most energy anyone has ever used on an air board.

Even with his sharingan, Sasuke could no longer see Tails on the air board. All he could see now was a golden green comet burning through the skies, coming straight for him. He narrowed his eyes, doing the best he could to see through the fireball. The sharingan intensified his stare, making out a clearer picture of the oncoming threat.

Sasuke successfully made out the form inside the meteor. It was Tails all right, riding atop the board and baring the katana. He had a fierce look of determination in his sapphire eyes. The contrast of the crimson blood only gave more intensity to his blue eyes. The sword's shining mirror like surface reflected the spark in Tails' eyes, giving the katana a blue aura. The storm of yellow, green, orange, red, and blue rocketed closer to the Tornado.

"So, it looks like he's ready to kill." Sasuke planted his feet into the wing's surface, ready to make a dodge at any second. "I don't know if I'll be fast enough for this. He's very good."

"I can't slow down. Can't back out!" Tails kept telling himself. "One swing of this sword and I can win this. I'll have to strike with everything I have!"

Tails reared back the sword, ready to take a slash at the ninja. Now only a few feet away, he had only one chance. The winds blasted against him, his fur blowing in the air. He didn't even notice that the force undid the metal wire and freed his tails. One second and it would all be over.

"If you wanna look at something with those eyes, then look at this!" he screamed as the sword slid in a downward motion through the air. Tails felt the force of the sword striking something solid.

The Yellow Tail slowed down. The green flame retreated. Tails breathed a sigh of relief. He took a look at the blade. It was dripping blood.

"I got him," Tails huffed, breathing heavily. "I'll check on the emerald and…huh?"

The fox stared at the plane with his mouth agape. Sasuke stood there on top of the Tornado, looking calm, despite the deep gash that ran along the length of his arm. A river of blood ran down his arm, staining his white shirt, and dripping down his fingers. He seemed to give it all a mere look of annoyance.

"This guy…I…I…gave it all I had, and that's all I could do!" His hand clenched in a tight grip on the sword's handle.

"That was your best, wasn't it? Why don't you just get out of here now?"

"I'm not gonna run away!" Tails shouted in defiance. He reignited the air board and flew down for another swing.

"Very well," Sasuke smirked and brought his hands together for a series of hand motions that ended with the seal of the tiger.

"**Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu! (Grand Fireball Technique.)** Upon his words, a blast of fire fumed from his mouth, expanding into a huge sphere of flame.

"Shit," the vulpine muttered under his breath as he found himself straight into contact with the fireball. "Can't stop this thing! I've got no choice, but to jump!" He leapt off the Yellow Tail just as it got swallowed up by the fireball.

The fire burned into the air board's engines, creating an explosion that that threw Tails closer to the biplane. The sound of the explosion rang through his ears.

Sasuke smiled at the effects of one of his first techniques. His fireball resulted in a battered Tails, a destroyed air board, and the white tips of his tails caught on fire. Tails returned back to the top of the biplane, still with the sword in hand.

The two stood there, on top of the Tornado, facing each other on opposite sides of the plane. Tails gripped the katana with both hands, placing it in between him and Sasuke.

"Such a fool," Sasuke taunted. "You could never be able to wield the Sword of Kusunagi, the Long Sword of the Heavens. If you think you can fight me with that, you really are an idiot."

"I don't care," Tails said in between short breaths. "I'll stop you in any way I can." He beat his tails hard on the wing of the plane, putting out the fire. The blade shook in his trembling hands. Tails tightened his grip on the sword. It was heavy in his hands and he never learned how to hold a sword before. Still, he made up for it all with nothing but will and determination.

"Make your move," Sasuke sneered.

Tails surged forward, thrusting his sword towards the red eyed ninja. Sasuke maneuvered away with a couple of well placed steps, caught the bottom of the sword, and knocked the blade out of the fox's hands. The Kusunagi sword sailed upward, but Sasuke expertly retrieved it in his bloodied hand and beat Tails down with the flat of the sword.

"Let's see if you managed to slow down my attacks, shall we?" Sasuke asked. "Last chance, let me have your chaos emerald, and this all ends."

"I'd rather be kitsune kabob then let an ass like you win!" Tails growled.

"You shouldn't talk like that," Sasuke lectured. "Those are words that should by used by people with real power. They can actually back up what they say. Losers like you just end up dead."

With those words, Sasuke sent forth the Sword of the Kusunagi in a stabbing move. He was so confident that he closed his eyes and just let the sword lead him. The sword gave off its magical blue glow as it prepared itself for the killing stroke. Blood splashed out as the katana tore through flesh and bone.

Sasuke smiled as he felt the warm blood drizzle into his face. "It's over," he whispered and relaxed his hold on the sword.

"You're too quick to judge," came a weak voice, followed by a wiggling of the sword.

Sasuke opened his eyes in shock. There was the katana, its sharp blade, sliced right through Tails' left tail. The fox, alive, but in pain gave off a grim smile. With the strength of his tail, Tails kept the sword at bay from his body.

"It can't be. You used that tail to choose your wound, avoiding the fatal strike. But...you should be dead. You're just some weak assed fox!" Sasuke cried, trying to force the sword into Tails' chest, but the vulpine held it in place with his tail.

"It doesn't matter how weak I am," Tails shouted. "Anyone who threatens my friends or my life, no matter how powerful they might be, I'll never give up! As long as I'm breathing, I'll keep going!" As he spoke those words, Tails gave Sasuke a piercing stare with his cobalt eyes.

"I see…" Sasuke said, regaining his composure. "I was wrong about you," he admitted while slowly pulling back his sword, sliding it out of the tail.

Tails winced in pain as the sword left him. "You are just like him," Sasuke went on. "Especially your eyes. And just like it was with him, I thought you were a loser."

"Who are you talking about?"

"The one who I once called my best friend," Sasuke said softly. The sharingan reverted back to his normal black eyes. "This battle turned out to be much more than I thought it would be. You've earned my respect, Tails."

"Don't care, just get off my plane," Tails said, still wincing and clutching his bloody tail.

"I'm still taking the chaos emerald. If you really believe what you said, then fate will spare you from your death. If that should happen, I'll be seeing you again. But," Sasuke's voice went deeper into a more threatening tone, "like I told Naruto, I won't hesitate to kill you next time."

Sasuke dug into the inner compartment of the Tornado and pulled out the green chaos emerald. He held up tow chaos emeralds, one in each hand, the yellow and the green, and shouted the words, "Chaos Control." Then, he disappeared in a flash of topaz and emerald light.

Cut off from the power of the chaos emerald, the Tornado plummeted like a rock down to the earth below. Tails' body, tortured and racked, flapped in the wind while he held on tight to the Tornado, waiting for the inevitable crash.

Thoughts and emotions ran back and forth in Tails' head. "I was so at home in the skies. Never did I think I'd die like this, being cast down from the skies to be buried in the earth. All I ever wanted was to fly high into the heavens." Blood sprayed forth from his left tail into the wind as the biplane fell lower and lower. "Just wanted to fly. That's all. Just fly…

**Chapter 3 is now written and sealed! Longer chapter, huh? I guess I got into it. I hope you liked this one. First Tails vs. Sasuke fight! Let me know what you thought of it!**

**Chapter 4 is on the way. Next time- Naruto and the gang make it to Mobius!**

**Izunagi is the name of a Shinto god who had a hand in creating the earth, so I thought it was a cool name for the sword, if you were wondering what that was all about.**

**So sorry about a late update, everyone. I wasn't happy with the first draft, so I rewrote everything. **


	4. Behind the Gates

**Here we go again with more Sonic/Naruto goodness. Yosh! On with the review responses and then chapter 4!**

**captain deoxys: My first fic! You were waiting for it! I almost forgot about it. Ok, I'll get back to it. I'm sure the others were wondering about it, too. I need to fix it up a bit, so hang in there. In the meantime, I have a special guest coming in this chapter…**

**Tails and Cream: Don't worry about Tails! I'll save him. I need him for the rest of my story.**

**Angelus-alvus: Thanks! I wouldn't want to keep you waiting too long, so here we are.**

**Blue Mage Quartet: Yeah, Tails almost did get killed got killed by Sasuke. Close call, huh? I was actually poking around in a lot of Japanese mythology for a good name for the sword and you wouldn't believe how many games and anime have mined that place. Final Fantasy took a lot of names for their weapons and stuff.**

**Crazy Hyperactive Kitsune: Whoa! When I read such an urgent review, I felt really nervous for Tails! Here ya go with the update!**

**Lycropath: I could have let Tails own Sasuke in that fight, but I don't think that would have been a good idea. He'll have to do lots of ninja training before he fights Sasuke again. And Sakura and Sai will be coming.**

**Silver Horror: What? You think I'm gonna kill off the main character in his chapter? He'll be fine. Now you'll see what happens to him.**

**TC-chan: I'm glad you liked all the character entrances. I had fun writing them. Characters like Gai and Jiraiya are so cool, they can practically write themselves in. I would also love to have the Tails fight scene animated, or drawn in a manga. That would be the coolest! Anyways, I'm really glad you liked that fight. I'll try to do more stuff like that!**

**Shikamaru's Butterfly: Thanks! And yeah, this is gonna be a ShikaTema coupling. I really like that couple. One of my favorites, so watch out for it! And thanks for writing Love in a Letter. It was great and it inspired me!**

**Melody's Last Song: Stop laughing! Tails nearly got killed! Oh, well. I guess kitsune kabob was pretty funny. Will Shadow fight Sasuke? Yeah, I think they will. I should really stop telling you what's gonna happen later on, because I might change my mind at the last minute, but yeah, I'm pretty sure that Shadow is going to take on Sasuke sometime soon.**

**azngirlchibi: I'm so glad you're excited. It means this fic is going right. So as for Tails and Naruto, check out this latest chapter…**

**Maverick87: You get that warm feeling, too, eh? Yeah, I know that warm feeling when Tails goes all badass. And sorry. What you said reminded me why it's really tricky to do crossovers. I mean, you have to be a fan of two things to really like it. It's cool to see that people who haven't really been watching Naruto are into it. But yeah, thanks for being a fan!**

**Damo and his Alter Ego: Shadow's still blasting you with lightning, I see. Good to know that you're still alive! My advice is to find yourself a rock pokemon or something to hind behind. But this is a Naruto story so just make sure Shadow doesn't kill you with Kakashi's Raikiri Lightning Edge attack! You'll die in one hit.**

**Evanlicious: Thanks for the reviews, Evan! I'm really happy you went and pointed out all your likes and dislikes with the story. Those were very helpful reviews. I'll keep that idea in mind of character descriptions and other things. I see that you have good eye for detail. That means I'll have to work harder now, but that's great! Anyhow, thanks and I hope to continue hearing from you!**

**Kyuuketsuki – Plot Biotch: So you're Blue Mage Quartet's brother? Nice. I was wondering how you knew each other. Is this the first time you guys are reviewing the same story? Thanks for the double review! I'm glad you're rooting for Tails. He needs more fans! And he is getting stronger. Wait 'till you see what happens when he starts learning jutsus.**

**Chapter IV: Behind the Gates**

A single light flickered on and broke through the darkness. The faint yellow light shined from an unknown source that came in only because of a ruptured hole in a very worn out ceiling.

"What happened?"

Tails looked down to find himself knee deep in a pool of murky water. He heard drops of water from leaking pipes all over the place. Besides for his heavy breathing, the rhythmic drops rippling into the pool was all he could hear.

"Looks like I'm in some kind of dungeon," Tails thought. The place reminded him of all the dark underground zones he visited with Sonic. This place was like the Mystic caves, Sandopolis, and Lava Reef all rolled together and given its own dreadful theme.

It wasn't really the darkness or the dampness that bothered Tails. There was a feeling he got. He couldn't put his finger on it, but then he glanced at his tails and almost fell back in shock.

"My tail…," The recent memory of the sword attack stabbed him in a way just like in the actual fight. Never before had Tails been through so much pain at one time.

Then it all came together. Tails looked and saw that there was no sword wound on his tail. No burns or bruises that he received from the fight. He was all better.

"This isn't the same body I had before. Unless I was healed all of a sudden-"

Tails perked up his ears to a new sound that broke his thoughts. It was a low snarling sound. Very low, but powerful enough to resound throughout the dungeon and make tiny waves in the shallow pools. Tails didn't have any idea from how far away the sound must have traveled.

"There's no other answer…"

"I'm dead. I was killed in the fall. That's why I don't feel any pain." His mouth went dry just by thinking those words. He really believed them.

"This dungeon must be Hell. And out there must be a snarling beast demon who wants to eat me."

He spoke out loud just to see if his voice still worked. "It figures. All my life, I dreamed of flying to the highest heavens, and so I end up falling into the deepest Hell."

"**Yes…,"** came a deep voice. **"But it is in the deepest Hell that you find your true self."**

**

* * *

  
**

**Konoha Hospital 10:00AM**

Naruto sprinted down the white hospital halls. It was a busy morning and Naruto had to jump pass quite a few people to keep his constant pace. He raced down the hall with no more trouble than the occasional "watch it, jerk!" comment interrupting him.

He wasn't that rude. Just in a hurry. There was someone he wanted to see badly. But like Rock Lee would say, "You always get what you don't want." Naruto fell victim to this law and found himself standing in front of the last person he wanted to see. Standing in front of him was Sai, the least popular ninja in all of Konoha. "Sai" was only a codename. His real name was known to very few. He was a mysterious ANBU member whose mystery was matched only by the amount of black he had on him. Everything on him was black. He wore a black ninja uniform. He had short black hair adorned with his black forehead protector, and his eyes were black. The only thing Naruto could expect from this guy was that he was bound to say something profoundly stupid.

"Nice sword," Sai said with a smile, focusing on Naruto's newly acquired katana that was strapped to his back. "What happened? Did they finally feel sorry for your dickless condition, so they got you a replacement?"

"Shut up, Sai!" shouted a frustrated Naruto. "For your information, this is the Yondaime's sword and it can cut through time and space!

"Oh, yeah? I'll give you some advice. Should you ever get yourself a decent sized wang, don't bring that sword too close to it."

Naruto went red in the face. "I'm just really glad you're not coming on this mission. Now have you seen Sakura? I've been trying to find her."

"She's in the intensive care unit, but she's working on a patient and doesn't want to be disturbed."

"That's okay. She won't mind because I have something really important to tell her."

"Well, good luck to you," Sai muttered and walked off, leaving Naruto to continue on his way.

"I am so glad that guy is not coming with us this time."

In contrast the rest of the hospital, Intensive Care Unit 7 was a dark and foreboding place. No non-medic ninjas were ever allowed in there unless they were on the brink of death. It was like a dungeon more than anything else, with candles placed strategically along the floor and arcane runes scribed into the black stone floors.

This was the place that expert medic-nins came to restore people's lost cells. A process that the required intense mastery of chakra control.

Of these medic-nins, Haruno Sakura was one of the best.

She never liked to wear the white full body suits commonly worn by the medics. She preferred to keep the same outfit that she wore on missions. She wore her signature sleeveless red shirt, tight black shorts, and a pair of high boots. Her emerald green eyes stared intently into the sky blue aura of chakra that surrounded her hand. It was her chakra scalpel that she would use to treat her patient.

"Concentrate…concentrate," Sakura repeated the mantra to herself. "For this, I need precise chakra control." She then slowly brought the chakra scalpel closer to her patient's body.

"SAKURA-CHAN!" Naruto screamed as he burst through the doors and into the chamber.

"Eeeh!" Sakura yelped and pulled the scalpel away which faded away into nothingness. "Naruto!" she growled, the intensity of her eyes now erupted into flames of anger. "You broke my concentration!"

Naruto gulped and backed away in fear from the irritated Sakura. She formed her hand into a fist, which she shook violently.

"S-sorry, Sakura-chan," Naruto whimpered, deathly afraid of Sakura's monstrous strength. He knew firsthand that Sakura, without question, was physically the strongest ninja in the village.

"Can't you see that I'm in the middle of a serious procedure?" Sakura gestured to the center of an elaborately drawn seal.

Naruto stepped closer for a better look. With the aid of the candle light, he made out a familiar face.

"Hey, Naruto," said a small brown pug dog with a sad face permanently plastered on. "What gives with this interruption?"

Naruto's eyes twitched at the sight of Pakkun, Kakashi's tracking dog. "What are you doing here? You don't look injured at all."

"Are you kidding me?" Pakkun asked in his gruff voice. "Look at my paw!"

Naruto bent down to study Pakkun's soft pink pads. "I don't see anything."

"There's a splinter in my pads!" the pug exclaimed.

Naruto just barely detected a tiny piece of wood lodged in the paw. "That's…it?" he asked. "That's what you guys made a big deal about?"

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled. "Don't make light of the situation. I was just about to take it out before you barged in!"

"But I can hardly even see it!" Naruto protested, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Don't you get it? Pakkun knows the scent of chaos emeralds," Sakura explained. He's going to help us track them down on Mobius. But he can't do that is he can't walk. And he can't walk if there's a splinter in his paw.

"Plus, having a splinter seriously reduces the awesome bounciness and softness of my pads," Pakkun added.

"Don't you have vets for things like this?" Naruto asked.

"Stop asking dumb questions, Naruto," Sakura yelled and violently shoved Naruto out of the way. "I'm going to finish this."

Sakura took a deep breath and resumed the procedure. The blue chakra scalpel returned to her hands and she brought it down gently to Pakkun's extended paw.

Pakkun gave a whine as the scalpel went into his paw, but he was relieved when the splinter was out. "The danger is over," he said.

"Pffft." Naruto sputtered. "Some danger."

"Here, Pakkun. Let me regenerate any damaged cells," Sakura kindly offered and placed the pug's paw in her cupped hands. Green chakra emanated out of her hands and entered into his pink pads.

"There. All better," Sakura said happily as the green chakra faded away.

"Indeed, my paws feel better than ever," Pakkun said. "Feel my mighty pads of awesome bounciness!" the pug cried dynamically and leapt towards Naruto.

Naruto touched his pink pad's and his whole world seemed to disappear as his whole being was overcome in. "So…bouncy. So very bouncy," he said and fell to the floor from the extreme softness.

"Sakura, here is your reward for healing me," Pakkun said as he pulled out a green shampoo bottle from his blue shirt. "I know it's your favorite. It smells like cherry blossoms. Just like your name. I use it all the time."

"The dog wants me to use his shampoo? But…this is my favorite shampoo of all time." Sakura turned white as a ghost and flopped onto the floor. "Same as a dog…"

Sai barged in through the doors with a cup ramen in hand and shouted, "Hey, Dickless Wonder and Ugly! Get up. You're so called squad leader wants you at the village gates ASAP!"

Sakura jumped up in a fit of rage. "That's it! He has to die!"

"Relax," Pakkun said with a smirk. "He called me 'pug ugly' so I pissed in his ramen cup while he wasn't looking."

Sai picked up a mouthful of ramen with his chopsticks and joyfully slurped it up. "Mmmm…that's good ramen."

Konoha Village Gates

"Mendokuse," Shikamauru muttered as he leaned against the large wooden gate.

"Huh, did you say something Shikamaru?" Temari asked.

"Nah, just that this is all so troublesome."

"Oh? Something's troublesome, you say?" she asked sarcastically. "Is there anything specific that's troublesome?"

"It's been awhile since all of us have gathered together. It brings back memories. Not all of them are good."

"You're thinking about Sasuke, aren't you? That day you went to retrieve him and failed."

"I see the old team is here. Neji, Kiba, Chouji, Lee, Naruto…"

"Don't forget that we're here, too," Shino said, adjusting his sunglasses.

"M-me too," added Hinata.

"I'll help too," said Tenten, brandishing a pair of kunai in her hand.

"And me!" yelled out Ino while punching and kicking the air. "We'll bring back Sasuke-kun for sure this time!"

Heh, you never did get over that crush with Sasuke, did you, Ino?" Shikamaru said, smiling slightly. "But he's different this time. This time…," his smile faded away and his eyes narrowed, "he might kill you."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," declared Naruto as he walked down the path towards the gate with Sakura and Pakkun in tow. "This time, we'll bring back Sasuke for sure and get those chaos emeralds!"

"Well, it looks like we're all ready and confident," Shikamaru began, "so I guess we can go. Naruto, take out that sword and do whatever kind of jutsu you're supposed to do with it.

Naruto was about to follow Shikamaru's order, but then stopped. "Wait a sec. Shouldn't you be giving a speech or something?"

"A speech? Why would I do something that troublesome?"

"Because you're squad leader. That's what they do."

Shikamaru gave a slight groan. "It's troublesome, but all right. Listen up, everyone. The deadline for Orochimaru's body replacement jutsu is almost up. In a matter of time, Sasuke's soul will be lost to Orochimaru, and if he gets these troublesome chaos emeralds, he'll be strong enough to take over the entire world. Of all things that I find a bother, saving the world is at the top of the list. And I should be the last person in this universe to lead such an operation. The stakes will be higher, the risks will be greater, there's no increased pay that I know of, and it leaves very little time to sit back and watch the clouds. But the fact is, if there's one thing I learned from my time of watching the clouds, there is nothing more valuable in this world than freedom. The clouds are nice because they're so free. As shinobi, it's our duty to protect the freedom of those important to us. That includes each other. And Sasuke. We're all still comrades. After all, the clouds," he stopped for a moment to look up at the sky, "they have comrades too."

Shikamaru scanned the group to see what they thought of his long winded speech. Most of them smile approvingly, especially Chouji, who grinned with pride. Then, he felt a hand grab his shoulder.

"That was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard, dattebayo!" Naruto said while crying his eyes out.

"Geez, only a simpleton would have cried at my half-assed speech." Shikamaru thought. "Hey, snap out of it, dumbass. It's time to go."

"Right!" Naruto nodded. He held out the Sword of Izunagi and held it perpendicular to his chest with one hand on the hilt and the other holding the sheath. "Ero-sennin says that to work this, all I have to do is have the right intent. Oh, and nobody should be in the way."

He pulled the katana out of the black sheath. A beam of yellow light accompanied the silver blade and followed it as it literally cut through the air.

Following in the wake of the sword's path was a hole torn through the air. The borders between the hole and the air looked like shredded parchment. It was as if the world was a paper cover to another reality behind.

Behind the newly opened gate was a world of utter blackness, but it was lit up with billions of star fields. Rivers of light in every color swam through the void and shooting stars zoomed this way and that. Naruto almost dropped the sword as he was overcome by the sight before him. The star fields reflected off of his cobalt eyes, making it look like the universe was contained inside his eyes.

"Is that outer space?" Naruto asked.

"Not likely. There's no vacuum." Shikamaru said, studying the torn edges of the portal. "As long as we can breathe in there, it shouldn't be too troublesome. But is there gravity in there what? We don't know any of this void's laws."

"Oh, just shut up and get in there!" Temari barked and kicked Shikamaru through the portal.

"Troublesome females!" yelled out Shikamaru, his voice echoed through the void as his body swirled deeper away from them.

"Why is everyone looking at me like that?" Temari asked with a shrug. "Come on. He is our leader." Then, the four pig-tailed ninja jumped through the wormhole.

"Does this thing close at all?" Kiba wondered. "I mean, it looks mighty suspicious to have a wormhole just standing in front of the village gates."

"I've traveled through here before," Pakkun said. "It will disappear momentarily." And with that, the pug jumped through the portal. Everyone else followed through, one by one.

From the distance, Gaara sat on one of the rooftops and watched. "Interesting," he muttered. "I'd better keep an eye on them." He put his hands together forming a seal, and then grains of sand began spiraling together. In the center of the spiral, a large eyeball materialized in the air. "Watch them," he commanded the eyeball, which flew into the gate.

After the third eye went in, the air closed in on the gate. And it was gone as if it was never there.

"Well, we're here," said Shikamaru who appeared to be lying down on an invisible couch as he floated through space. "So how do we find Mobius?"

"Just follow me," Pakkun ordered. "I can guide us there." Pakkun leapt toward an oncoming shooting star and gestured for everyone to follow.

"Well, it's troublesome to split up, so let's take it and go," Shikamaru shrugged and headed for the shooting star that Pakkun just went for, and soon enough, the whole group latched onto one of the many shooting stars that sped through the cosmos.

The star sped through the cosmos, whirling round and round. Sparks burst into flashes. Moving at the speed of light, everyone watched the heavens blazed with all their power. Everything flashed and sparkled as one. Then one spark expanded to form a giant dazzling ring.

"It's a power ring!" Naruto cried out. "That must be the gate to Mobius!"

The shooting star went dead center into the empty space of the ring. A prismatic lightning storm erupted and the ninjas found themselves tumbling out of the wormhole and onto a grassy field. The multicolored lightning bolts vanished as quickly as they came and any trace of interdimensional transport was gone, save for the Sword of Izunagi.

"That sword could get you invited to a lot of parties, Naruto," Kiba snickered.

Shikamaru was already busy trying to put that whole troublesome scene behind him and looked around at his surroundings.

And for once, he didn't find it troublesome at all.

A large butterfly that lived up to its name with its buttery hued wings flew right past him and danced around his pineapple shaped ponytail. He broke off his gaze from the butterfly to survey a landscape of lush emerald green hills, mountains with huge waterfalls cascading down into rivers that glistened under the sunlight like diamonds.

After flying around Shikamaru, the butterfly found itself strangely attracted to Shino. The bug ninja merely adjusted his sunglasses and studied the butterfly intently, but gave no hint of amusement anyone else would show in that case.

"Hey, Shino," Kiba asked. "What's that butterfly saying to you?"

"It told me that we've made it to Mobius. We've arrived at the place known as Green Hill Zone."

* * *

Tails was more confused than he was scared. And he was scared. But of what exactly, he wasn't sure. If he was really dead, what could hurt him now? And if he wasn't dead and in Hell, then where was he? And who else was out there?

"I need answers. Maybe there's a way out of this place." With determination in his eyes, Tails sloshed on through the puddles of the prison corridors. He was partly glad that his injuries from the fight were gone, but that was offset by the unpleasant feeling of trudging through sewage water that got absorbed right into his socks and sneakers. The musty air and the dull yellow lighting didn't help to lighten up his mood, either.

Then the snarling came back. Closer and louder this time. Tails recalled that voice that spoke before. They were definitely coming from the same place.

There was a hallway where the light couldn't reach so easily. "It's coming from there."

Tails took a deep breath and entered the darkness. In the dark lighting, Tails' bright orange fur faded to a shade of dark brown. Even his gleaming blue eyes turned to a pale gray.

The snarling grew more intense. This time Tails could hear the sound of saliva slobbering over the creature's mouth. He felt the air was getting hotter around him. "This feeling…It's some kind of strange energy. Where have I felt it before?"

"**Hey, kid, come closer,"** spoke that ferocious voice. **"You feel it don't you?"**

"F-feel what?" Tails' whole body was shuddering. "What is it?"

The heat in the air almost seem to come alive. **"My chakra,"** spoke the creature. **"Come closer and I'll show you more."**

"Where are you?" Tails called out.

"**Follow the pipelines,"** the voice beckoned.

Tails gazed at the ceiling and saw the network of leaking pipelines were all congregating to a central conduit. The hallway grew hotter, creating waves of heat emanating from a single point. Tails saw that he was nearing the end of the hallway. The puddles of water started receding, evaporating from the heat. The light burned more intensely, but still retained the same dull yellow glow.

At the end of the network stood a massive barred gate. Tails was sure that whatever what was talking to him, it was coming from there. In the center of the gate was a single tag that read "seal." As he stepped closer to the gate, the thing sealed inside came to the bars and Tails saw a hue pair of red eyes staring at him and a massive set of grinning teeth.

"**How does it feel to embrace the chakra of the Kyuubi?"**

"He's…"

"**Yes, kit. I am a fox just like you. Because of this kinship, I have brought you here to me. To my prison."**

"You're trapped here?"

"**It is a detestable seal. For fifteen years, I have been caged up because of this seal. But now, I see with the weakening of the seal, the time for freedom has come."** A field of red fiery chakra pulsed around the cage. The demon fox's blood red eyes narrowed down its gaze at the two-tailed fox. Tails felt like those eyes were burning right through him**. "Freedom for the both of us."**

"What do you mean?"

"**Behold the red chakra that surrounds us. You've felt it before, haven't you?"**

Tails gulped. "Yes. It was when-" Tails' memory of his fight with Sasuke flashed through his mind. He could still taste the blood in his mouth, the heat from the flames, the bite of a sword, and those spinning eyes. "When I almost died."

"**You felt stronger that time, didn't you?"**

Tails tried to pinpoint what the Kyuubi was getting at. His eyes widened when it hit him.

"It can't be. You should be dead," Sasuke's words continued to ring in his mind. "I stopped him from killing me. At that time, I was stronger than I've ever felt before."

"**So, you have accessed a part of my power."**

"So my hidden strength came from your fiery red stuff? Come to think of it, every time I was ever about to die, I felt just like that."

"**Death has the power to unlock these gates. It was the power of death that sealed me here. And it is the power of death that will free me."**

Tails felt a particular coating of malice in the demon's word whenever he said the word "death." It gave him a creepy vibe. As if the demon knew Death intimately.

"**I smell something…"** the demon's voice grew lower and deeper. **"You're afraid, aren't you?"**

"Yeah."

"**Why? Is it because you can sense the blood that drips off of my massive claws?**" Tails started to back up, but then the demon shot forth a clawed paw that banged against the gate. His shimmering white claws poked through the bars, stopping in front of Tails by mere inches. **"Or the mountains of bones that I crushed with my tails?"**

"T-tails?"

"**Yes. You heard me right,"** The claws receded back into the cage. The demon's voice grew calmer, less violent. **"I am the kitsune demon with nine tails. Greatest of all the tailed demons."** He emphasized strongly the part about being the greatest demon. **"And as you've guessed, I've brought more devastation to the world than all demons combined. This single seal is the only thing that stops me."**

Tails breathed a sigh of relief at those last words, but the next thing the Kyubi said made his heart skip a beat.

"**But you are the key to freeing me."**

"What? Why would I ever free you?"

"**Because not all seals are formed through chakra. And not all cages have bars."**

"What-what are you talking about?"

"**As the barriers between worlds have ruptured, I have at last come to discover the key that will open this seal. I know everything about you, Miles "Tails" Prower."**

"How do you know my name?"

Thick saliva dripped from the demon's sharp canines as he spoke**. "I just said that I know everything about you! I know your fears and your weaknesses. You are very weak indeed. But you didn't need me to tell you that, did you?"**

Tails closed his eyes. His fear replaced my shame. "No, you didn't."

"**Always tagging along with Sonic the Hedgehog. Being more a burden than a help. Needing to be rescued countless of times. Can you believe he entrusted a chaos emerald to you? And let's not forget what Uchiha Sasuke did to you. Let's not forget how you lost it all."**

"Don't remind me," Tails choked those words as tears crawled through his shut eyelids and made ripples in the pool.

"**Do not feel bad, kit. The Uchiha's power surprises even me. But his actions have disgraced the name of all kitsune. It is time we did what must be done."**

"Do what?"

"**Uchiha Sasuke must die."** The word "die" was coated with a deep blood thirst.

Tails tried to speak up. "But I-"

"**But what!"** the demon bellowed.

"I don't think I can do that. It's too much."

"**Hahahahahah!"** the demon laughed an ugly laugh**. "Are you saying you don't believe in yourself? Let me tell you a story. For fifteen years, I was forced to watch the life of this one brat that is my jailer…Uzumaki Naruto. He was a real weakling, a victim of a sorrowful past. One you could relate to, couldn't you?"**

"My past? Yeah, it was really painful. I was picked on and teased. Everyone would call me a freak. Nobody acknowledged me or believed in me."

"**Then you already know the beginning of this story very well. He desired nothing more than to be acknowledged and to become the Hokage."**

"What's a hokagay?"

"**Let's just say that it's someone strong enough to seal me away."**

"So this kid wanted to be the strongest?"

"**He went on and on about his way of the ninja. He never gave up when fate tried to crush him. I helped him because our lives are bound together. As is my life to yours."**

"How?"

"**You are not yet worthy to know that. Go find purpose in your life. Stop playing sidekick with that hedgehog. Become your own person. Become the hero you truly wish. Kill Sasuke and get back those chaos emeralds. Find your way to the Hidden Village of Leaves. There, you will find the key to break this seal, and I will be free. And then..."** his grin grew wider**. "You too shall be set free."**

**

* * *

  
**

**Mystic Ruins 12:00 PM**

"Tails? Tails?" A girl's voice cried out.

Tails was now lying in bed, tossing and turning. His eyelids were shut tight. A cold sweat drenched his bandaged fur and he kept moaning away incoherently, "Sasuke…ughn…chaos emeralds…Kyubi…gotta get stronger…break free…kill him…Naruto… kitsune…leaves…"

"Tails, are you all right?"

The unconscious fox started shaking more violently. "No…won't be weak anymore…I'll get those emeralds back…"

"Tails, it's okay. Wake up," the girl put her hand on his forehead.

The vulpine suddenly jumped out of bed in a panic. "Give back the emeralds, Sasuke!" he shouted as he lunged forward, eyes still closed, with arms extended, grabbing hard onto what he thought were chaos emeralds. "That's funny. I didn't remember the chaos emeralds being this soft and squishy," Tails said.

"Maybe you should open your eyes, Tails," said a gruff voice.

Tails listened to the voice and opened his eyes. Then he saw that he wasn't grasping the chaos emeralds, but rather, he was grasping a woman's breasts. Lifting his head up a little higher, he stared up at a very irritated bat girl.

"Uh oh. Rouge, I…um," Tails immediately withdrew his arms away. "I can explain…"

"Explain after I punched you out, you perverted fox!" Rouge cried out and sent her fist pummeling deep into Tails' face. The vulpine sailed into the air and crashed onto the floor.

"O-ouch," Tails moaned. Pain rose from his mangles face like hot steam.

The normally stoic Shadow tried hard to suppress his laughter. "Welcome back to the land of the living, Tails." Then the ebony hedgehog out a dead serious face on. "But don't go thinking you can escape death so easily next time."

"Wha? Shadow?" the dazed kit replied. "I have no idea what's going on. Where am I?"

Shadow simply sighed. "Explaining things to you is too much of a pain. Rouge, I know you're mad, but could you please enlighten him?"

Rouge was busy nursing her punching arm. "Sorry for hitting you so hard, Tailsy, but you do have a hard head under that fuzz. Anyway, you're back home in your workshop. Shadow and I have been on the trail of a bunch of ninjas who are stealing the chaos emeralds-"

"Yeah, I know. I got attacked by one. The guy was soooo crazy. You should've seen him."

"I didn't need to," Shadow replied. "Using my chaos energy sense, I found your plane just after he took it and saved you. You were half dead when I got to you."

"Wow, Shadow! You saved me?" Tails sat up on the floor and his cobalt eyes lit up with gratitude. "Thanks, bud."

"Don't call me 'bud," Shadow grumbled.

"Maybe I'd better get up," Tails said. He groggily lifted himself off the floor and started wobbling around the room in a daze. Every muscle in his body was aching. Tails realized that he was back in the real world and his wounds were all back, along with the pain. He looked at himself in a mirror and saw that the top of his head was all wrapped up in bandages, and so was his left tail. "So where was I before. Was it all a dream?" Tails then spotted his red and white sneakers, upon which he slipped them on. He noticed that his socks and shoes were dry as a bone. "I wasn't really there. Not my body, anyway…"

"After Shadow saved you and regenerated the blood loss, I patched you up, Tails," Rouge said, looking at Tails in the mirror. "You're gonna be fine, but you won't be flying for awhile."

Rouge's words left a nasty taste in the kit's mouth. "I can't fly?" he asked, sulking.

"Hey. Chin up, kiddo," Rouge said, gently placing her gloved hand on Tails' chin and lifting it up. "I'll tell you what. How about I do the flying for the both of us on this mission?" she offered with a wink.

Tails' eyes beamed at the bat girl. "Huh? You mean-"

"That's right, faker's friend," Shadow said. "Get out your coolest toys. You're coming with us to get back those emeralds."

"Wow! That's awesome," Tails' eyes were gleaming with excitement. "I really wasn't expecting this. But why?"

"Look at what I left on your couch," Rouge beckoned.

Tails headed over to the couch. "Knuckles?" The echidna was lying on Tails' living room couch out cold.

"They got him, too," Rouge said. "He's been in a coma for days. I'm trying to cure him and get the assholes that did this."

"So you want revenge," Tails said coolly. "And what's your deal, Shadow?" he asked , turning to the dark hedgehog.

"Answers," he replied simply. "This Orochimaru guy who's behind everything is powerful. He definitely knows what he's doing. I need to know what he wants with the power of chaos. From what I've seen of what he can do, well, he's just scary."

Tails started to shiver. Anybody who could scare Shadow was for sure dangerous.

"So what's the plan, smart guy?" Shadow asked, looking like he wanted an immediate answer.

"Wha? You're asking me?"

"Do you see anyone else around here with a 400 IQ? Yeah, I'm asking you."

"You're the new brains of Team Dark now, Tails," Rouge explained with a sly smile. We await your orders."

Tails returned her smile with his own smirk. "Looks like you guys really trust me." The kit paced back and forth around the living room as he spoke. "Okay. We're dealing with ninjas who come from some alternate dimension. Just like Chris's world. We need to find out more about where they came from. I say we head for Robotnik's main compound. His hidden archive contains information on some of the most far reaching places in any universe. I'd bet anything that he has information listed on their world. Then maybe we can find a way to transport ourselves there."

"Sounds like a good place to start," Shadow nodded his head in agreement. "Robotnik's got one of the chaos emeralds, so it's likely we'll meet our ninja friends there, too."

"Uchiha Sasuke," Tails was instantly reminded of his name. "Looks like we'll meet again soon." All right, I've got a new plane we can take to Eggman Empire."

"And I've got the ammo," added Shadow.

"I can tell that you boys are going to have a lot of fun," Rouge teased. "So tell me, Tails. You look really pumped up. What's got you all fired up? You want revenge from what that mean ninja did to you?"

"No. Not revenge. Freedom," he stressed that last word like it was fixed in his mind.

"**Remember,"** the Kyubi's words returned to Tails. **"Once you break me free, you too will be free…"**

**

* * *

  
**

**And that's it for Chap 4! A lot got set up in this chapter. Sakura, Sai, Pakkun, and the Kyuubi are introduced. The Naruto crew is now in Sonic's world, Tails met the Kyuubi, and now he's part of Shadow and Rouge's team. And I haven't even gotten to Sonic yet. Don't worry about him. He'll be in this soon.**

**Oh, yeah. Some Japanese words sorta found their way in there. Sorry if that bothered anyone. Here's what they mean:**

**Yosh- Exclamation like "All right!" or "OK!" Naruto, Lee, and Gai say it a lot.**

**Mendouse- What a bother. Shikamaru says it a lot**

**Datteabayo- This nonsensical phrase is attached to sentences as emphasis by Naruto compare English 'ya know?', The English dub replaces it with "Believe it!"**

**Well, that's about it for now. Hope you enjoyed this one. Much more to come next time.**


	5. Whose Side Are You On?

**Time for the next installment! Man, it's been over two months since this story started and I only got five chapters up. Sorry. I had midterms and things. I should be able to update faster now.**

**Before I get to all these reviews, let me just give you all a tremendous thanks! This story has hit FIFTY+ reviews! Nothing could motivate me more to write better and faster than hearing your responses! Thanks so much to all of you for reviewing, faving, alerting, and C2ing! I hope to hear from you all again and anyone new and that this should continue to be a success! Yay! Have some Naruto chibi shaped cookies! Mmmmm…chibis!**

**Blue Mage Quartet: Honestly, I used to think it was pronounced "hocage." Anyways, don't count Knuckles out so soon. You never know when he might come back. Ino's gonna star. I just have to figure out a cool way to make use of her mind jutsus.**

**azngirlchibi: Yeah, that's why Naruto will only say "dattebayo." And Sonic would so say something like that. It'll be interesting when he and Naruto meet! You'll have to see!**

**Lycropath: I don't hate Sai or anything like that. I just wanted to have some fun with him. And the only reason he's not going with the Konoha 11 is because I just wanted to have those original guys go to Mobius. But Sai will return for later. And don't worry about Tails and Naruto's team. They will all meet up!**

**Melody's Last Song: Thanks for the nice review! I always thought it would be cool to have Tails team up with Shadow and Rouge. Nice change from the normal Sonic and Tails duo.**

**Maverick87: Why? Because Tails is insanely awesome and he's my favorite character too! I'll never let that be forgotten! So you're welcome for that reminder. And take your time on Tails' return in Breach of Faith 2. I'm sure that his coming back will be awesome! You're a true Tails fan, so I know you'll do him justice!**

**TC chan: Like I said, I don't hate Sai. Of course I'm no fan of that belly top either. Oh, and are you talking about Chris when you mentioned your most hated charrie? Yeah, I should've guessed somebody would think, "Nooooooo! Not Chris!" Don't worry. He won't be making any appearances in this story. It was just a passing nod. Chris wouldn't last a day in ninja world.**

**captain deoxys: What can I say? You're right. Shadow is mad dangerous. He could give any Naruto character trouble. Actually, there's gonna be a Shadow vs. Sakura encounter later.**

**Angelus-alvus: Thanks! Please keep reading and I hope you continue to enjoy!**

**Silver Horror: You got it! More continuations coming in!**

**C-C-Cody - Plot Biotch: Thanks! Looks like everybody really likes the Kyubi! I had a lot of fun writing him, but he is such an awesome presence so it makes sense. Anyway, I'm glad you really like it and so I'll keep updating!**

**Shikamaru's Butterfly: Well, yeah you inspired me. I never wrote a ShikaTema coupling before and I'm not much for writing romance either, so every good fic is an inspiration for me. Reviews and great stories really help me out the most! Did I make Shadow sound like Shikamaru? Well, I felt that he acts that way anyway sometimes.**

**WriterApprentice: Yay! A new reviewer! Thanks! I did have a feeling that somebody would be notice that the ninjas are owning all the Sonic characters, but don't worry. The ninjas aren't going to have all the fun. I just let Sasuke and Snake freak kick ass because they're the biggest badasses in the story and I wanted everybody to be pissed off at them, which seemed to work! But later, Knuckles and Tails are gonna get back at them. You'll see!**

**Mei Fire: Another new reviewer! Sweet! I didn't know that there was a cap to the list of favs. Oh, well. Thanks for alerting! I always appreciate having stalkers follow the story around. I hope it's all worth your stalking pleasure!**

**Green Racoon: One more new reviewer! Thanks! I think the interactions between characters will be the most interesting part of the story. I don't know what's the deal with your favs situation, though. It always works when I either click on the "add stories to favorites list" under the blue "submit review" thing, or when I put a check next to "Favorite Stories" under the review box. If that doesn't work, I guess you just have to put in the story id like it tells you to (it's that big number at the top of the story.) I hear weird things like this tend to happen.**

**Well, I've said enough, so here's that chapter!**

**Chapter V: Whose Side Are You On?**

**Green Hill Zone**

The clouds of Mobius were so unlike the ones found in Konoha, Here, they were thinner and less puffy. It was harder to find any shapes in them.

Shikamaru didn't mind. After all, on his many cloud watching adventures, he would often find a cloud with a shape he didn't like. Then he would mumble about how troublesome it was to have to look at it, but it was too troublesome to take his eyes off the sky, so he would be stuck with it.

But now, the clouds broke from their forms and simply formed new ones like they didn't care who was watching them. They just formed and reformed at will as they wisped along their way, more quickly than the Konoha clouds.

In fact, everything seemed to move faster around here, Shikamaru noticed. As if this particular world had a specialty for fast moving things. Now that was something troublesome. If there was something Shikamaru liked to do and did well, it was taking his time.

And right now, there were eleven other ninjas complaining for him to get up and get going.

"All of you just chill out for a minute," he told them all. "I know it doesn't look like we're doing anything productive, but I'm thinking up a good party formation while Pakkun sniffs out the chaos emeralds."

Naruto just groaned. He hated waiting. "Hey, Pakkun. You've been to this place before, right?" he asked, hoping to hear something interesting.

"Yeah," the pug replied as he sniffed around the ground. "I came here with Kakashi and the Yondaime a long time ago. Back in those days, we did a lot of dimension travel. Like the time we went to this one place to find all the shards of the sacred Shikon Jewel. That was an interesting story."

"Oh, yeah? How was that?"

Pakkun shook his head disdainfully "I had to work with a giant cat, so it was annoying. The monk and Kakashi got along great, though."

"Well, I'm just glad we only have to find seven emeralds," said Shikamaru, overhearing everything. "Any more than that is way too troublesome."

"Speaking of which, I can tell you where they are," the pug said, lifting his nose from the earth. "But they're found in opposite directions."

"So where are they?"

Pakkun pointed one paw to the left to a large city far off in the distance. "That city is called Station Square. There's an emerald over there."

He motioned his paw to the right towards another city. "They call that place The Eggman Empire. It's ruled by a mad scientist called Dr. Robotnik and his army of robots. He is currently in possession of one."

"Robots," Shikamaru's eyes leered. "That sounds very troublesome."

"Yosh! Robots!" Lee shouted, punching and kicking the air. He had a completely different opinion on the matter. "That sounds like the coolest opponents to test my strength!"

Out of nowhere, a glittering image of Gai-sensei's face materialized in the air in front of Lee and he gave his usual thumbs up 'nice guy pose' and toothy sparkle. "Way to go, Lee! Show those robots the true power of youth!"

"Yes, Gai-sensei! I won't let you down!"

"He's seeing things again, Neji," Tenten whispered into her Hyuuga partner's ear. "What do we do?"

"Relax. He'll be fine," the calm Neji assured her and placed his hand over her shoulder.

"I'm glad you're excited, Lee. Because I'm sending you down there to fight them," said Shikamaru. "Which reminds me. Everyone listen up for our team formations. From here on, we're slitting up into two teams."

Shikamaru's eyes went from his normal, lazy cloud watching mode to the less common calculating eyes of a serious chounin squad leader.

"I'm going to lead Team A to Station Square where we will investigate the whereabouts of the chaos emerald. Neji is going to lead Team B on a mission into Robotnik's city. To make things simpler, his teammates, Tenten and Lee will accompany him. I think it would be best to have a Byakagun user on both teams, so Hinata will join me. I also want my usual teammates, Chouji and Ino to come with me—"

"That's a smart move, Shikamaru," Ino interrupted. "A sexy girl like me belongs in the public eye of the big city, you know." She then undid her ponytail, allowing her long blonde hair to blow majestically in the wind. "Wait till Station Sqaure gets a load of me!"

"There's lots of good shopping down at the mall. You should go there," Pakkun politely added.

"Yes…well I'm glad you're happy. Well, on that note, Shino will be joining Neji's team because he looks like a drug dealer and I'm sure the city has laws against that."

"How insulting," Shino muttered underneath his hooded cloak.

"Since you and Kiba are both wilderness experts, you're skills will be most useful out away from the city, so you're both on Neji's team. Since Kiba has Akamaru, we will take Pakkun. Lastly, Sakura will be on your team because she will likely be your only access to medical attention. Also, I imagine her strength can be effective on robots."

"Yes! I get to be on Sakura's team!" Lee jumped with joy. Lee never did get over his feelings for Sakura. Luckily for him, Sakura did get over seeing Lee as the weird ninja with horrifying eyebrows and bobbed haircut and the two turned out to make a formidable team.

"Now that leaves Temari and Naruto for my team," Shikamaru finished.

Hinata's heart almost exploded from her chest at this revelation. "So I get to be on Naruto-kun's team." Her fingers wriggled about as nervous as ever.

"So the breakdown is as follows:

**Station Square Team:** Shikamaru, Temari, Naruto, Hinata, Ino, Chouji, and Pakkun.

**Eggman Empire Team:** Neji, Tenten, Lee, Sakura, Shino, Kiba, and Akamaru.

And we set off immediately. Any questions?"

"Yeah," Temari's hand shot up. "Couldn't you think of better team names than that?"

"Eh. That's just troub—"

"Shhh," Temari placed her index finger firmly on Shikamaru's lips. "Don't say it. Just don't."

* * *

They set out that afternoon. As the day drew to a close with the setting of the sun burning the blue sky with an orange hue, another team flew in their plane towards their destination.

Tails swooped down through the polluted skies that surrounded Eggman Empire getting closer towards Robotnik's metallic fortress in his blue and orange Tornado II. A glum frown rested on his face. Flying the second plane reminded him of how his red Tornado I biplane was destroyed after Sasuke ripped out the chaos emerald. This time, the Tornado II ran on jet fuel instead of chaos energy. Not as fast or environment friendly, but much more reliable. He also hoped to upgrade some weapons to the plane to better defend it, but Shadow insisted that there was no time for fancy stuff and that he would take care of all the artillery.

Looking into the plane's mirrors gave him the sight of the top of his head all wrapped up in bandage, with just his three bangs of fur protruding. And he only had to look behind to see his left tail completely wrapped in bandages. The fact that he wasn't able to fly bothered him to no end.

And then there was the Kyuubi. Tails still didn't know what to make of his surreal encounter. That monster spelled it out pretty clearly that he was evil, but at least it seemed to be on his side for some reason. Even more, it seemed to understand him. Tails needed an opinion on the matter. He never got a chance to speak to his best friend about it all.

"I still don't see why we didn't contact Sonic," Tails shouted across the wind to the wing of the plane where Shadow stood, just like Sonic himself always would.

"The last thing we need right now is that faker getting in the way," Shadow called back. "Since my powers overlap his, he's pretty much extra baggage. A three man team is strategically the best for this attack anyway, and if we revive Knuckles, we'll have more than enough. Still, I'm not sure how smart it was to bring his body with us."

"Robotnik has Mobius's most advanced medical technology in his fortress," Rouge called from the plane's backseat. Knuckles was lying in the back with her. "I'm sure I can help him out down here."

Rouge sounded desperate. She would never show it, but Tails just had to glance back and he could tell that she was really broken inside over the fact that Orochimaru tore through Knuckles like he was nothing. A grim thought came to Tails. He now knew that it wasn't him alone that got defeated by these new enemies. When Knuckles woke up, the two of them would have something in common to share.

"Hey, quit daydreaming, kid," Shadow quipped. "Eggman Empire. Dead ahead. What're we doing?"

"We fly towards the central tower. It's the most heavily guarded, but it also connects to every other facility in the city via super fast elevators. His sensors are guaranteed to pick us up immediately so we have to hit them hard and fast. Can you do that, Shadow?"

"Oh. I'll do more than that," the hedgehog stared to grin. "I'll rip this place apart piece by piece."

* * *

"Can't you get a clearer image on the monitor?"

"The haze, Master. It interferes."

"Save your excuses, you bucket of bolts," Dr. Ivo Robotnik barked from his chair in the central control room. From his seat, he was able to view all sights and sounds all over Eggman Empire using the myriads of advanced surveillance devices at his fingertips. He was like the spider in the center of a vast web. The slightest disturbance alerted his cybernetic spider sense. It was all just a matter of time to when he would catch the flies, bite off their heads and drain their blood.

"No matter. I recognize the form of that two-tailed twit's plane. He's coming along with the bat agent and that enigmatic hedgehog. But why? And more importantly…I wonder who these new intruders are?"

Robotnik was referring to the six strangers that just entered from the ground level. They were all teenagers. A pink haired girl, a long haired guy dressed completely in white with whiter stony eyes to boot, a pink vested girl with buns in her hair, and a ridiculous looking character with a shiny bowl haircut, super thick eye brows, and covered in tight green spandex. Then there was this feral looking kid with a giant white dog, and last of all, a mysterious fellow in a high collar green coat, sunglasses, and yet another hooded brown coat, concealing his face almost entirely.

"What an eclectic bunch," Robotnik said, stroking his mustache. "That last guy looks like some kind of drug dealer. If only I could see his face. Zoom in on them at once," he commanded to the robot watchers.

The cameras started to zoom in, but the images were replaced by the screen being covered in snow. The last thing Robotnik got a chance to make out was some kind of bug was crawling on screen just before everything went out.

"So the spider has found some flies. Computer, initiate Project Onigumo," Robotnik commanded acidly. "I'm going to put these pests down once and for all. I'm tired of everybody and their dog trying to take my hard earned chaos emeralds."

"What of the hedgehog, bat, and fox, Master?" asked the computer.

"Ahh, yes. Almost forgot about them. Well then," Robotnik lost his composure completely and started screaming and flailing his arms like a maniac. "All batteries fire! Knock them out of my skies!"

Upon Robotnik's word, cannons from nearly every wall in the city emerged, aimed, and fired plasma energy missiles at the Tornado II.

The skies resounded with the crescendo of bombs bursting all around the Tornado. The sonic booms themselves shook the little biplane back and forth.

"We're toast!" yelled Rouge, holding on to Knuckles for dear life, making sure he didn't fall out of the plane.

"Shadow!" Tails shouted at the top of his lungs, a mixture of both intense fear and excitement. "Take point! Hit 'em hard with everything you got!"

"Got it!" confirmed the ebony hedgehog. He closed his eyes and charged up his hands with pulsing red chaos power. A menacing globe of pure chaos energy formed before him.

Tails put the pedal to the metal on his plane and sent the biplane dive bombing straight for the central tower. Shadow outstretched his arms and powerfully applied his chaos blast to the metallic structure.

After a spectacular explosion, a 20ft square foot radius of the outer wall was vaporized into dust.

Shadow the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Rouge the Bat all dynamically leapt into the new entrance of the tower through a cloud of red chaos smoke left in their wake, putting on a good show for the guardian eggbots, who already readied their laser rifles to combat the intruders.

The fastest of all, Shadow instantly chaos controlled in an AK-47, clicked in the magazine, and mowed down the first wave of attacking robots. A shower of oil and mechanical parts littered the once spotless halls.

Then Rouge made her move. With Knuckles hoisted over her shoulder, the bat pulled out her pistol and ran through the corridor hitting every robot she ran passed right between the eyes and dexterously dodging all the incoming bullets.

Tails, while being covered by his team was setting up the plane to fly away via remote control, but he couldn't take his eyes off his teammates fighting. "You guys really have a thing for headshots, don't you?"

Shadow looked up at Tails while adjusting a laser guider on his gun. "What makes you say that?" he asked innocently.

"Duck, Tails!" Rouge cried out.

"Huh?" Tails snapped out of his thoughts to see a squadron of swatbots armed with bazookas heading his way.

Tails rolled onto the hard metallic floor, missiles flying right over his head. Shadow grabbed the fox by his arm and pulled around a corner where they huddled together.

"I should've said this before, so let me just remind you now," Shadow said tersely, pulling on the fox's white chest fur. "Be on the offensive as much as you can and destroy everything that moves."

"Okay," Tails nodded nervously. "But if I'm going to do that, I..."

"You what?"

The image of the demonic Kyuubi flashed before him for a split second. Then Tails' face hardened.

"I'll need a bigger gun."

"A bigger gun, eh? Do you know how to use one of these?" asked Shadow, tossing a Desert Eagle to Tails.

"Heh! Do I know how to use one of these?" Tails scoffed with an enormous grin. "Just watch me!" He then fired into the fray, nailing a group of swatbots, but the recoil sent him slamming into the walls. "Ungh! This packs more of a punch than I thought," he laughed to himself, smiling at Shadow sheepishly.

Shadow just returned Tails with an icy glare. "Two hands, Tails. You're too small to fire that one handed."

"Awww," Tails protested. "But that doesn't look as cool."

"It's not about looking cool," Shadow paused and immediately retracted his sentence. "Well, actually it is, but you're not ready for that yet. Whatever, just keep shooting until your targets stop moving."

Tails could tell right there that despite the black hedgehog's dour expressions that he was really warming up to him. If anybody else was on the team, especially Sonic, Shadow would've probably shot them by now.

Rouge ran towards them to join the two gunmen, all the while holding Knuckles. "This is where we part ways, boys. I'm taking the elevator over there to the medical labs. It's a relatively safe zone so meet Knux and me there when the coast is clear."

"All right," Shadow and Tails agreed together. Rouge then proceeded to dive into the elevator at the end of the hall, evading incoming fire along the way. With the push of a button, the elevator doors slammed shut and sent her off.

Shadow and Tails stood back to back, strafing their respective areas, ridding themselves of the robot enemies and littering a great deal of bullet shells at their feet. Shadow was a destructive force with the machine gun in his hand and Tails had a deadly accuracy all his own, once he got a better feel for the recoil. "I'm heading to the central command center now, Shadow," Tails said. "Where are you headed?

"Everywhere," he replied and with that, Shadow was gone in a flash of blue light.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tails wondered, scratching the back of his head. Tails just shrugged and ran off. He bit off the pin of a grenade he had on him and tossed over his shoulder without looking back to take down the leftover robots and create more space between him and the pursuers. Of course, he had no idea that a swarm of bugs was crawling along the ceiling, following him.

* * *

Shikamaru was smart to send out Aburame Shino and Inuzuka Kiba to Robotnik's Scrap Brain Zone. They were the best students of the Jounin, Yuhi Kerenai and their specialty was tracking and wilderness survival.

It would be wrong to say that Kiba and Shino were totally comfortable in the new setting of Robotnik's technological domain. They were more at home in a place like the Forest of Death, where they always had their expert nature skills to their advantage. Still, the robotic base wasn't that different and many of the same rules for survival applied.

Like how Shino could send out his destruction bugs to scan for everything happening up ahead. Shino was literally a living nest for the insects and to pay the rent, they carried out his every word.

"It seems we're not the only ones after the chaos emeralds," the enigmatic Shino spoke in muffled tones through his cloak.

"What do you mean, Shino?" asked Sakura. This was really her first she was partnered up with the bug ninja, but she heard he was the best reconnaissance expert around, so she leaned in closely to hear his every word.

"My bugs have told me that there are several Mobians who have infiltrated the base and are battling Robotnik's minions."

"So that's the cause of all those explosions we've been hearing," Tenten said. "What do you make of it, Neji?"

"Hmmm. We still can't tell whose side they're on. Just because they're enemies of Robotnik doesn't guarantee that we can trust them. I think we should double our efforts and get the emerald before anybody else does."

"So can we find them?" Kiba asked.

"Let's see. Byakagun!" Neji shouted. Unsightly veins emerged around his eyes indicating the great chakra stress placed in that area. His white eyes lit up, becoming even whiter. Looking around, Neji now saw right through all the walls around him. His X-ray eyes pierced through nearly every chamber. Through his eyes, he saw a bat creature heading down south, a black hedgehog who was teleporting all over the place, attacking every enemy he saw, and there was a two-tailed fox heading up towards to the command center.

"Sakura, go alone to the east wing where you'll find this bat," Neji said, pointing in that very direction. "You'll know what to do when you get there."

"Shino, Kiba," the white eyed ninja now faced them. "I will entrust you guys with heading straight for the command center. The chaos emerald is there. I will entrust you guys with it."

"Heh heh heh," Kiba snickered. "Giving me the exciting part of the mission? I like that, Neji. Right, Akamaru?"

Akamaru barked back happily saying what only Kiba could understand.

"What do you think, Shin-hey!" Kiba turned around to see Shino was already way down the hall, walking away.

Kiba ran off after the bug ninja with Akamaru in tow. "At least say something when you're going."

"You should be paying attention instead of talking about unimportant things," Shino replied coldly.

"If this guy didn't have insanely awesome moves, I'd never hang out with him," Kiba thought while slipping out a low growl.

Now that everyone had gone, Neji turned to Tenten. "You know what we have to do now, right?"

"Yup," Tenten nodded. "We need to find out where Lee ran off to."

* * *

Rock Lee drew out his foot for a killing blow into the swatbot's head, knocking it clean off its shoulders.

"That's the last of them," Lee huffed, clearly out of breath. His face was drenched in sweat. He looked behind him to see a trail of over a hundred demolished swatbots. "What an amazing challenge. You'd be so proud of me, Gai-sensei."

Lee the taijutsu ninja was so engrossed in his reflections that he didn't detect the next enemy sneaking up from behind, but he was able to feel the end of a gun pushed against the back of his head and the ever ominous clicking sound they always made.

"There aren't too many guns from where I come from," Lee said to the unknown attacker. "This fight will surely be a challenge."

"This isn't going to be a fight," the other said in a soft spoken voice. "It's going to be a massacre."

"So you're really dishonorable enough to shoot someone in the back?"

"Honor is no concern of mine," he replied. "But I saw your moves and I can tell that you're fast enough to dodge bullets. If I kill you then the dishonor is on you for your weakness."

That remark hit Lee right to the core. To him, his training and skills were everything and to be blown away right here would indeed be a dishonorable end.

"Wait," the ninja argued. "You don't even know whose side I'm on, and you already want to shoot me?"

"I know that I've never seen you before, that your eyebrows disturb me, it looks like you take ballet lessons, and you're obviously after the chaos emeralds. That's all I need to know."

"If you're going to kill me you should at least know who I am."

"I don't care."

"I am Rock Lee, Konohagakure's famous Green Beast, the hardworking taijutsu chounin, and disciple of the awesome Maito Gai-sensei. Now tell me who you are, stranger."

"It's not as long winded an introduction as yours, but since you care so much I'm Shadow the Hedgehog, the Ultimate Lifeform. "

"A hedgehog?"

"The ultimate hedgehog," Shadow corrected as he pulled back his finger on the trigger.

"LOOK OUT, LEE!" Tenten shouted, jumping towards them and sending a shuriken flying from her hands, knocking into the gun. Shadow was forced to release his grip and the machine gun slid across the floor.

"Lee! Are you crazy or something?" Tenten nagged. "Why do you always run off on your own like that. That weirdo was about to blow your head off."

"Not now, Tenten," Lee shushed her. "I've still got to take this guy on. He's clearly one of the enemies. Maybe he's a robot, too."'

"No robots here, ninja boy. I'm the Ultimate Lifeform," Shadow said brazenly. "Here's why."

Shadow brought forth his arms and yelled out, "Chaos Spear!"

A yellow bolt of chaos energy streaked through the hall arching towards Lee who somersaulted instantly right over it. The spear went on to blow a smoldering hole in the wall behind him.

"Lee, you're too beat from fighting all those robots to take him on. You barely dodged that attack," berated the worried Tenten.

"Not to worry, Tenten. I've got a good ace up my sleeve. I've been saving it for something like this," Lee said while reaching his hand into one his green vest pockets. "Here it is!"

Out of his vest, Lee pulled out a glowing golden power ring. "I found one of these on the way over here. If what Tsunade said was true, then I will now attain godlike speed!" Eager to see what it could do, Lee vanished in a sparkling flash.

"He's gone!" Tenten cried.

"No," Shadow corrected her. "He's just really fast." Then he brought in another machine gun to strafe the area.

"**Konoha Shoufu! (Leaf's Rising Gust)** Lee cried as he appeared right in front of Shadow and with a swift upward kick, knocked the gun right out of the startled hedgehog's hand.

With his lightning fast reflexes, Shadow grabbed onto Lee's kicking leg, and threw the shinobi into the air, then followed up by jumping above the airborn Lee and slammed him down with both fists.

"Idiot," Shadow taunted. "I only took out that gun so you would reveal yourself. Now, no matter how fast you are, I'll be on top of you."

"You're that fast? You must be a born genius," Lee remarked.

Shadow drew himself into a menacing fighting stance. "You can say that."

"Wait," Lee halted him with his hand outstretched, giving the 'stop' sign. "Before we continue to fight, you must know that I achieved all my skills through hard work, the very opposite of a genius such as yourself. Now I know that we were destined to do battle, Shadow the Hedgehog. The Green Beast who beat all the odds through hard work and nothing other than hand to hand techniques versus the genius known as the Ultimate Lifeform! This is truly a battle between two spirits of youth!" Lee finished his words with his fists tightened hard and sparks of flame in his eyes.

"Your words are just as stupid as your looks," Shadow said sourly.

Lee wasted no more time and charged towards Shadow, sure that the hedgehog would never be defend himself in time.

He was wrong. Shadow easily jumped out of Lee's path and ran along the walls all the while charging up his hands for another chaos spear.

"Lee," Tenten interrupted. "Do you want me to-"

"No, I got this," Lee cut her off.

Lee leapt back into the air and called out the name of another technique. "Konoha Sempou!" (Leaf's Spinning Whirlwind.) Following his leap in the air, Lee performed a spinning kick with both legs twirling at Shadow. The ebony hedgehog ducked the first kick, but Lee sent the second leg lower and used it to crack into Shadow's face.

Shadow tumbled off the wall towards the floor. He felt the warm, iron taste of blood in his mouth and the wriggling of a loose tooth. "You'll pay for that," he said, spitting the blood out of his mouth along with his tooth that rattled onto the floor. "I'll burn those gigantic fuzzy eyebrows right off your face."

"You should see my sensei's," Lee retorted, but with a dead serious expression. He then zipped towards the ebony hedgehog and connected a high roundhouse kick to his face with such force that it sent Shadow rocketing up to the ceiling.

"Now to finish this," Lee announced. **"Kage Buyou!" (Shadow Dance.)** Shadow tilted his head slightly to see that Lee was airborne and floating directly under him, both following the same trajectory. "A fitting technique to defeat you with, Shadow."

First, there was a moment of complete silence and stillness all around. Shadow floated in the air and did nothing. Lee with his Shadow Dance floated gently behind him. Shadow could only faintly hear what sounded like a gentle breeze rustling through the leaves of a distant tree. Then, the green ninja broke the tranquility with a rock shatterring shout.

"**Omote Renge!" (Initial Lotus.)** Lee grasped his arms around Shadow in a bear hug and began sending him back down in a pile drive, spinning furiously.

"Your killing move, huh? Forget that!" Shadow blinked away using his chaos control, leaving Lee empty handed and forced to break his lotus move. "Don't worry. I'm not leaving," he said venomously as he teleported back in and punched Lee hard in the chest.

"You can't defeat him with your lotus moves, Lee," said Tenten. "They take too much time before he blinks away."

"Listen to the lady, you bob haired nut," Shadow ridiculed and then elbowed Lee's jaw, sending him sprawling.

"That's it, Shadow," cried Tenten. "I've stood on the sidelines long enough." She then pulled out a large scroll.

"What are you going to do with that?"

"Watch me," Tenten said, her chocolate eyes and her voice were brimming with confidence.

The scroll unrolled over three feet, revealing large kanji in black ink. There was no time for Shadow to read the contents because Tenten already went to work placing her hands over each letter, causing all kinds of ninja weapons to be summoned forth from the scroll. Nimbly, she tossed weapon after weapon, sometimes multiple weapons at once. Shuriken and kunai whizzed towards the hedgehog with blinding speed.

Instinctively, Shadow teleported away with his chaos control. Tenten smiled when she though he ran away, but it faded when she saw the hedgehog reappear in the midst of the weapon stream, grabbing as many weapons as he could.

"Oh, no you don't," Tenten warned and then called forth bigger weapons.

Out of the scroll flew a flurry of hooked chains, kamas, boomerangs, flails, giant stars, and swords. Shadow tossed all the shuriken and kunai he had out of his hands towards the kunoichi, creating a silver gray river of metal swimming through the air in both directions. Tenten flung her body backwards evading her own weapons while Shadow chaos controlled again amongst the weapons, grabbing as many as he could, kicking away the rest, and sending them all back towards Tenten, all with lightning speed.

"No, Tenten! You have to get away!" Lee cried.

"I know, Lee," she answered softly. "But I can't…"

Tenten also couldn't see that someone was coming from behind.

"**Kaiten!" (Divine Whirl)** shouted a familiar voice. Tenten turned to see Neji, like his move's namesake, spinning around and around furiously, releasing a huge amount of blue chakra from every pore from his body, his flowing white robes fluttering in his self created cyclone, Neji repelled all of Tenten's weapons, forcing them to bounce harmlessly out of Tenten's way.

When Neji's spin slowed down, the blue cyclone faded away bringing calm back to the hollow, metallic hall. Neji stood there looking calm as always, his all seeing pearly eyes glared at Shadow.

"You're in big trouble now, Shadow," Tenten jeered with a gigantic smirk. "The amazing Hyuga Neji is here!"

"Hmph," Shadow grunted clearly unimpressed.

Like a true ninja, Neji showed no reaction either to Tenten's praise nor Shadow's disdan. He just got right to business."What an overwhelming chakra this guy has," Neji noted, his byakagun staring into Shadow's chakra flow. "No wonder this guy is so confident. I'll have to shut him down right away." Without warning, Neji darted towards Shadow with legendary speed and thrust out his hand, stabbing his fingers into the hedgehog's white chest fur.

The actual hit was just a light jab, but Shadow reeled back in pain. That hand was like a knife stabbing right through him.

"I just cut off one of your chakra points and damaged your internal organs," Neji explained.

"Not sure what you're talking about," Shadow felt droplets of blood leaking from his mouth. "But I don't like it." He cupped his two hands together and in a swirl of chaos energy, brought forth his two emeralds.

"Those are the chaos emeralds!" the members of Team Gai guessed.

Shadow closed his eyes and focused on his chaos, the red and the purple. By meditation on the power of the chaos, the brightness of the emeralds intensified.

"What's he doing?" Lee asked in bewilderment.

"It's obvious, Lee," Neji really didn't want to say out loud what was about to happen, but his mind wouldn't shut up about it in a million years. "He's just used those emeralds to amplify his chakra to impossible levels. Now he's going to release it all in one explosion."

The rainbow energy of the chaos emeralds rippled through the air, bringing forth cascading waves of burning red and deep purple around them. Neji's chakra seeing eyes were overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of all the chakra. All that power swarmed around Shadow's hands where he shaped it into one pulsing ball of power. He tried to make his attack look as menacing as possible. He wanted to put the fear of death into Neji's glassy eyes. And it was working.

Neji used every precious little second he had to calculate the right reaction, and then hit upon a rather simple solution. "This should work…"

"CHAOS BLAST!" Shadow lobbed his deadly orb at the shinobi.

Neji closed his eyes and focused his chakra inward. He meditated hard and saw the yin and yang symbol before him, his focus for all his techniques, and gathered his chakra for his next jutsu. **"Hakke Kuushou!" (Vacuum Palm)** Neji shoved his arm with the palm of his hand out towards the chaos blast, expelling a focused, dense burst of chakra. The offensive blue chakra violently pushed against the lethal chaos blast, first preventing its trajectory, but then went to sending it back at Shadow.

"It can't be," Shadow snarled through gritted teeth.

"Be careful with your techniques. They can be used against you," Neji lectured. Shadow had no time to internalize the advice because the collision of Neji's vacuum palm with the chaos energy erupted into a magnificent combustion that smashed Robotnik's walls apart, sending debris flying everywhere.

Shadow was caught dead center in the whirlwind of destruction. He yelped in agony as the abundant energy ripped into his body and threw him hard into the demolished wall.

"I'll have to escape! No way will they take my chaos emeralds!" Shadow swore and used all his might to manifest his power amidst all the chaos.

"Ch-chaos Control," he forced out the words and engulfed his body in blue light.

But then, something unexpected happened. No one was sure why or how because this was the first time an intense amount of chakra was mixed together with an incredible dose of chaos energy, but Shadow didn't merely teleport away. The flash of light that usually sent him away this time expanded forth like a tidal wave of energy. The waves crashed into all three of members Team Gai, consuming them completely.

All the roiling energies burst into one intense conflagration and then died away. Robotnik's hallways were left broken and desolate.

Everyone had disappeared without a trace.

* * *

Tails found himself standing inside an enormous factory floor. Along the walls, giant egg mechs were lined up, most had Robotnik's face plastered on them in one form or another. Every step his shoe made sent an echo throughout the chamber. But he soon heard another sound.

Tails spun around to see a sadistic looking claw tear through the steel walls like they were made of paper. As the thing stepped through the hole it made, Tails saw that the claw was actually a leg, one of eight that belonged to a monstrously large robotic spider.

The thing skittered towards Tails slowly, letting out a robotic hiss as it approached. The fox just stood there, frozen in place with fear. He cringed at the sight of the dark green venom oozing from the spider's fangs.

"Welcome Tails," Robotnik spoke from a communicator on the spider's head. "Meet Onigumo! This is one of my prototypes that I've wanted to make use of for awhile. I'm sure I've done a bug monster theme before somewhere, but thanks to you and Sonic, I've done so many that I've lost track. Be that as it may, I'm going to rectify that problem starting with you."

Tails didn't say anything. He just stood there, frozen in place.

"At least say something," Robotnik chided. "Beg for mercy. Cry for Sonic to come save you. Don't ruin my fun."

Tails remained there scared stiff, motionless and speechless.

"Fine!" Robotnik growled. "I'll just move to the juiciest part then."

Without warning, Robotnik sent forth one of the spider's razor sharp arachnid legs and impaled Tails right through the stomach. The claw lifted his body in the air, then pinned it to the wall. "Come on, Tails. I want you to squirm helplessly. Then I want to see your delicious red blood seep out of your body," From his command center, Robotnik bent down closer to his monitor, seen from the spider's eyes. "I want to see every last crimson drop squeeze out of your soft little tummy like a fresh cream filled cupcake."

He dug the claw deeper into the fox's belly, causing his legs to wriggle pitifully. In only seconds, Tails' head sank and his body went limp.

Tails was dead.

"I can't wait to see Sonic's face when I show him what's left of the brat."

Robotnik got his wish.

Almost.

Something did spill out of the fox's guts.

But it wasn't blood.

"This can't be right," Robotnik grumbled, adjusting his tinted glasses.

"That black stuff coming out of him…" he rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things, then zoomed in the cameras.

"That's not blood. Those are…bugs."

It started slowly with a few bugs trickling forth from the stab wound. Soon enough, the fox's entire body broke apart to become nothing but a mass of swarming black bugs. The spider was left harming no one. Robotnik could only stare in shock.

The bugs crawled away from the robot and returned to surround the mysterious cloaked ninja who appeared through one of the doorways, followed by his partner, Kiba.

"Everything went as planned. It was a smart idea to go and tail the fox," said Shino.

"Tail?' Nice joke, Shino," Kiba said, giving his partner an elbow nudge.

"It was not a joke," the humorless Shino replied dryly.

Kiba continued to snicker.. "Because he has two tails and his name is Tails, and you said-"

"I know," Shino wanted to tell Kiba that the joke was really corny, but that would have implied having a sense of humor which Shino would never show.

The real Tails, who saw everything from the chamber's air duct above, could no longer contain his excitement. He remembered what Shadow said to him about shoot first and ask questions later. But Tails was not Shadow. And he never would be. Even if Shadow was right, Tails' thirst for learning new things always won out over "Oh, man! That was the coolest thing I've ever seen!" he exclaimed, leaping out of the air duct to confront the ninjas.

"So this is the real Tails," said Shino.

"You've got to tell me how you did that! I mean, it was a perfect copy! It looked just like me! It's a good thing Robtonik never noticed there was two of us. That would've fooled anyone!" Tails exploded with glee. "You even did the bandages! Never did I think I'd see myself turn into bugs! It must've been done to gauge Robtnik's reactions and my body was the bait. Do you think can you teach me to do that? I always liked bugs. You guys have some really neat moves! But," Tails started to calm down and spoke more thoughtfully. "I noticed that the bug substitute thing didn't speak. You weren't able to mimic my voice, because bugs can't talk I guess. So that would be the bug clone's weakness. Hmmm..."

"He talks too much..." Shino groaned inwardly.

"So what's the other guy do?" Tails asked, turning to Kiba. "You've got to show me your specialty!"

Little did Tails know that Kiba's great big dog was lurking behind Tails, growling quietly. As he inched closer, Akamaru chomped down on Tails' right tail.

"YAAAAHHH!" Tails yelped and jumped into the air. When Tails got back to the ground, he held tight his right tail, "He bit my good tail," Tails wept.

"Akamaru!" Kiba scolded. "Bad dog! Don't go biting anyone's tails anymore without my permission."

Akamaru bent down submissively and whined, then licked Tails' face as an apology.

"A bug dude and a dog guy. That's a pretty cool combo," Tails admitted, already putting aside the bite. "Anyways, I should ask you guys-"

The roar of an oncoming missile interrupted Tails' words and the three all jumped out of the way as the rocket shot out by the spider robot, erupting another hole into the factory wall.

"How dare you all just stand around and talk as if I'm not listening and my fearsome creation isn't still here!" Robotnik's voice roared from the robot. Tails couldn't see him, but he knew for sure that the doctor's face went beet red by now. "I was so sure I killed you, Tails. I really thought I gutted your soft Twinkie-like body!"

"Everything's about Twinkies to you, isn't it Robuttnik?" Tails snapped back.

"Tails," Shino called out to the fox. "Go settle the score with Dr. Robotnik and take his chaos emerald. We will deal with this," he then pointed at the spider robot with his bugs swarming around his arm.

"On it," Tails nodded.

"Hey, wait," Kiba halted him before he could run off. "Take these. It might come in handy," the tossed a small capsule towards the kit.

"What are these?" Tails asked, opening the capsule, revealing some small red balls.

"Soldier pills. They'll give you strength when you need it. Check this out," Kiba tossed one pill to Akamaru, who caught it in his mouth. In a second, Akamaru's white fur turned to a shade of blood red, and his features grew fiercer, his canines grew sharper, and his eyes got meaner.

Tails sped off, taking a quick look behind him to see the two ninjas and their pets getting revved up for battle. A smile formed on his face as he watched them ready themselves. He knew these were guys he could trust. "I shoulda asked them their names. Weird bunch of guys. Weird, but I know I can trust them."

Tails just couldn't shake the experiences from his head. "Wow! I just saw my own death!" Even with these thoughts, Tails kept running towards the elevator that would lead him to Robotnik. smiling all the way. He was actually looking forward to the next battle.

Because now he had some new friends on his side.

* * *

**And there you go with Chapter 5! I hope you enjoy. (Cue in Naruto theme music that they do for every preview) Next chapter: Sonic the Hedgehog meets Naruto! What will happen? We'll find out soon. Meanwhile, please read and review.**

**Oh, and on that note, know that I accept all anonymous reviews. I think that might've been a problem before because I just noticed that my anonymous review thingie was disabled. Well, I fixed that, so now anybody can review! So go ahead and tell me what you think!**

**Rock on, everyone!**


	6. Station Square Shinobi

**Here we go, everyone. A new chapter! Just gotta say sorry for going a whole month without an update! Writer's block got to me.**

**Melody's Last Song: I'm sorry that you got flamed. And it was such a good poem, too! Their loss, I guess. Some people here are just crazy. Really, most flamers are completely insane. If only there's like a booby trap or something that could go on stories to kill flamers. But anyway, I always thought Tails with a gun was a cool idea. Some of my favorite fanfics have Tails owning everything with his guns.**

**Mei Fire: Thanks! It looks like everybody liked that fight. I think it's my favorite part so far, too :D**

**azngirlchibi: Yeah, I thought since I was doing to whole "alternate dimension" thing I should milk it for what's it's worth.**

**Lycropath: Yeah, it would be crime if Shikamaru didn't put Temari in his team! They need to stick together.**

**Mya the hedgie and Victoria: Yes! Amy will be in this fic. She stars in this chapter! I'm planning on having just about all the main characters in this story.**

**Silver Horror: Stop me if I don't continue! I just wish I could write faster!**

**captain deoxys: Did you just threaten the writer? Seriously though, I do my best to honor all reader requests, so I'll try not to write more perverted Tails. Still, I always felt there was something perverted about him. The other day, I saw this picture on deviantart where Tails snuck into Amy's room and stole her panties! I thought it was funny. XD! But this is Naruto we're talking about so there has to be a little perverted stuff. As for Shadow, he could give Tsunade a nice scare. We'll have to see how that's gonna go down.**

**Blue Mage Quartet: Only in the Naruto world is there ways to kill off people and then find out that they were really clones. Wait...that happens nearly everywhere. But only here do you have bug clones. And I'm glad you liked the Shadow vs. Tenten fight. She's not seen so much in Naruto, so I thought it's be nice to have her get in there.**

**: Thanks for reviewing, mysterious stranger! I guess they call it anonymous reviews for a reason! Rouge does make a good ninja, though. I think there was a Sonic X episode where she dressed up as one. Out of all the characters it's her and Espio that make the most sense to be ninjas.**

**Angelus-alvus: Thanks:D**

**Green Racoon: Thanks for saying everything rocked! That's interesting that you were rooting for Shadow because I kinda made him out to be the bad guy in that fight. But it's like they say, who cares what side you're on as long as you're cool.**

**TC chan: Thanks :P I always thought that Shino's Part 2 look was really weird so I had to poke fun at it. (And I haven't even thought about ways to torture Sai for his fashion sense yet. Heheheh) And sorry for the long wait, but the time has come for Konoha's number one hyperactive ninja to meet Sonic!**

**Shikamaru's Butterfly: Oh, man. I almost got flamed? In a way, that's good because it means people care about Tails. But be warned, there's probably gonna be some character deaths in this story.**

**TheShamanMaster: New reviewer! All right! Thanks for saying this crossover is freaking awesome. There's more crazy fights in this chapter, so I hope you like that!**

**MeraNova: I really planned on having Sonic come sooner like around chapter 2, but he kept getting bumped off. Maybe it's because I'm such a big Tails fan. Anywho, Sonic finally makes it in this chapter!**

**KirbyLink: Thanks ;) When I first thought about writing fanfics, this was actually the first idea that came to mind. I just thought it was awesome to see them both together!**

**Dragon Man 180: You're probably right about Sonic and Naruto's personality clashes. Same with Tails and Naruto. They might be really interesting to put together, too. And letting the Kyubi out would be really bad for Tails! We'll have to see what happens with that!**

**Forse the deathmaster: Thanks for the awesome compliments! That really made me feel good. I didn't think Lee would want to open his gates yet, because he wanted to see what kind of opponent Shadow was and test things. But Lee will be around a lot more and he'll open those gates eventually! And there will definitely be more Kyubi appearances!**

**Chapter VI: Station Square Shinobi**

"Itadakimasu!"

With no chopsticks around, Naruto lifted a chilidog into the air joyously and pounded it into his mouth. It was a long journey to go from Green Hill Zone to Station Square, but they made it. According to Pakkun's reliable nose, there was definitely a chaos emerald located somewhere in the vicinity of the big mall by the Emerald Coast Beach. Naruto could only scratch his head in wonder at what a mystical artifact was doing in the mall of a beach resort, but he was too hungry to think that much about it, and he was glad that his team could get some decent food. All they had to eat on the road were Chouji's BBQ chips. Much to his chagrin, Naruto was unable to locate a single ramen stand anywhere, so Chouji suggested he try chilidogs. They seemed to be pretty popular around here.

Of Naruto's six man and a dog team, only Chouji, Ino and Hinata came with him to go eat. Shikamaru said he wasn't hungry and was more interested in getting the mission over with and avoid all the troublesome exploring. The problem was that Emerald Coast Mall was huge. It had to be to accommodate all the humans and hundreds of different species of Mobians that lived in the city. But then again, everything they saw in Station Square was huge. After all, there was barely a single mall to be found in all of Fire Country. Needless to say, the kunoichi in Shikamaru's team were blown over when they arrived.

The real troublesome part was that Pakkun was kicked out by security. Even though there were many dogs hanging around the mall, they were all able to walk on two legs. That was an ability that none of Kakashi's dogs had. Shikamaru couldn't understand why they had to follow such a strict rule, but nevertheless, he didn't want to make a fight over it and just went on to formulate the best plan to search out the emerald.

Before the lazy genius nin could get into his 'thinking' stance, Temari pulled Shikamaru aside and ordered him to go with her to check out the clothing stores. When he refused, she made some sort of crack that he owed her money, but Shikamaru insisted that it was impossible because he never borrowed money from anyone in his life because it was too troublesome to keep track of things like that. Temari argued that Shikamaru had a bad habit of wasting time whenever they were together on missions and since time equaled money, he actually owed her a hefty fee. When he complained that no such troublesome tax could possibly be binding, Temari simply grabbed his arm and forcefully dragged him along with her, (which is how most arguments with her ended) leaving the rest of the team behind.

Naruto didn't want to think too much of what kind of terror Temari was going to put Shikamaru through so he decided to get some food and just forget about them.

"A-ano, how are the chilidogs, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, blushing more with every bite she saw Naruto take.

"I still can't believe there's no ramen around here," Naruto replied with a mouthful, "but the chilidogs are good. This was a great idea, Chouji."

"I just noticed that they have many chilidog stands here," Chouji answered. "If that is indeed their specialty, it may be that they are best at preparing them." Since Chouji was pretty much always right when it came to food, everyone just nodded in agreement.

"We should bring some for Bushy Brows. He loves spicy stuff like this," Naruto reminded them, while continuing to eat. "Too bad we didn't switch places. I'd be much happier bashing robots than being in some dumb mall. Can't even get some ramen here," he complained while biting into another chilidog.

Ino couldn't contain her anger anymore. Who was Naruto to go dissing the mall? "Naruto, you are such a baby. Everything's ramen and fighting with you!"

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Besides, I really wanted to try this sword out!" he yelled out obnoxiously and pulled his katana from his sheath, while jumping onto the countertop, catching the attention of everyone around him. In one hand, he bared the sword, and in the other hand, he flashed a 'V' for 'victory' sign with his fingers.

The surrounding Mobians exchanged weird looks at each other. Hinata smiled and turned red. She loved to see Naruto get excited.

"Hey! No weapons allowed in here!" yelled the chilidog chef from behind the counter. The guy looked suspiciously like old man Teuchi, the ramen cook. In fact, the chilidog bar itself looked very similar to Ichiraku's.

Naruto put his sword away and glanced at Chouji who returned an understanding nod his way. Chouji apparently noticed it, too. "If his cooking skills are the same as Teuchi's, that would explain why these chilidogs are so delicious," Chouji told him.

"Sorry about the weapons thing, old man," Naruto said while sitting back down. "I'm still starving so let me have one of those three foot long chilidogs."

"Who're you calling old man? You're just as disruptive as Sonic. You even ordered the same thing."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Sonic?"

"Don't act like you never heard of him," grumbled the grouchy chef. "He's my best customer. And the biggest troublemaker. Just last week, he ducked in here hiding from that Amy girl that always chases him. Although why she didn't think to look for him here is anybody's guess. But the real trouble started when he brought that little fox with him. I had to shut down for the day because they ate everything. I though Sonic had an appetite, but that Tails, he's like a demon fox."

Naruto perked his ears up at that last note. "I didn't know they could eat that much."

"What? You seriously don't know about Sonic's legendary appetite for chilidogs? Where have you been, boy? You sound like you've never heard of Sonic the Hedgehog."

"Oh, I've heard of him," Naruto answered. "Sonic the Hedgehog, the legendary hero of Mobius. Also known as 'The Blue Blur,' and 'The Fastest Thing Alive.' He has the ability to break the sound barrier, going past Mach 2. His sneakers are specially made to avoid any resistance and friction. He can curl himself into a perfectly spherical shape and do a Sonic Spin. With the speed that he can spin his quills, he can slice through even the hardest metals. He has both offensive and defensive capabilities by generating instant force fields. With his spin dash and homing attacks, no robot has ever been able to defeat him. By collecting power rings and chaos emeralds, he can become even faster and stronger. With the power of all seven chaos emeralds, he can turn into Super Sonic and can move at the speed of light. In addition, he can use chaos control to mold time and space to an extant…And his favorite food is chilidogs."

"Whoa…" Ino's jaw dropped. "Naruto, you were able to gather all that information just like that. I mean, I know your ninjutsu skills were great, but that was so…smart."

"It was amazing, Naruto-kun," Hinata finally spoke up, while pushing her forefingers together nervously.

"Thanks. Kakashi taught me how to do that," he said smiling.

"Come to think of it, Sonic's face is plastered everywhere you look. He's very popular in this city," Ino said. "It wouldn't be that hard to gather information on him. So what's his weakness?"

"I haven't figured that out yet. I wonder what super fast hedgehogs are weak against." Naruto thought about for a moment, but let go of his train of thought when a foot long chilidog was placed in front of him and Chouji's plate. Ino and Hinata just got normal sized chilidogs.

"It's likely that Orochimaru will be keeping an eye on Sonic. He could try to turn him into an enemy, so we need to know how to defeat Sonic in that scenario," Ino warned.

"Maybe Sonic will show up here today since he likes chilidogs. We could ask him what his weakness is," Hinata suggested thoughtfully.

"Hinata," Ino rolled her eyes as she explained. "You can't just walk up to a national superhero and ask him what his greatest weakness is. We'll have Shika-kun figure it out if he ever gets back here."

* * *

"Look, Shika-kun. I made a Gaara plushie!"

Standing inches away from Shikamaru's face was an angry looking Gaara, complete with his sand gourd in the back, standing six inches tall, and made out plushie material.

Shikamaru was not amused. He was able to escape the various clothing stores only to wind up in some sort of arts and crafts store. "At least you can make those plushies quickly, Temari. I didn't know you were so artistic."

"Oh, please. The village of Sand has always been known for producing great artisans. Everyone there is good at shaping and creating things. Like Kankuro and his puppets."

"Kankuro?" Shikamaru cocked an eyebrow. "I hate those annoying puppets."

"Actually, I think they're pretty stupid looking, too," Temari agreed. "That's why I never bothered to learn how to use them, even though they're so popular in Suna. I like plushies instead." She said, happily hugging her Gaara plushie. "Don't you think he'd love it?"

Shikamaru shrugged.

"Oh, but if you liked that, you'll love this," she said while pulling something else out for him.

"I never said I liked—"

Shikamaru shut up right away at the next sight.

"I made a Shikamaru plushie!" she squealed. "Doesn't it look just like you? It's got the same bored frown and you can position his hands behind his head for some exciting cloud watching action!" Shikamaru detected a tone of sarcasm in her voice.

"And best of all, I can make him talk," she gave the plushie a light squeeze.

"Mendokuse…" complained the Shikamaru plushie.

Temari gave a harder squeeze. "Cut out that troublesome squeezing. It's so annoying."

"This is a real drag," Shikamaru sighed and walked out of the store.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?"

"To get some fresh air."

"Come back, Shika-kun. I'm all the fresh air you'll ever need," Temari called out. But it was too late. Shikamaru had left and the only way to get him back would create a lot of damage.

"Man, shopping for things is so troublesome," he complained as he exited the mall, and then made his way down to the beach at Emerald Coast.

Although the weather was very warm, it was late in the afternoon and the population at the beach was scarce. Perfect for Shikamaru. He easily found himself a lone palm tree by the dunes. It's swaying prickly leaves seemed to invite him to sit under its shade. The tree was far enough from the boardwalk full of hotels and shopping malls so that he would avoid anything troublesome, and it was close enough to the ocean to hear the soothing crashing of the seashore. He gladly claimed ownership of that palm tree and settled under its leaves. The shade gave a cooler touch to the soft sand, and combined with the tropical breeze, Shikamaru had the perfect atmosphere for daydreaming. Putting his hands over the back of his head, he gently let out a sigh that melted away all his troublesome worries.

A glance behind him showed Shikamaru that he wasn't the only one with this idea. There he saw a blue hedgehog, kicking back in a lounge chair, sunglasses covering his eyes, and a glass with a straw and a little umbrella inside it in his hand. At this sight, Shikamaru could only smile. "At least some people still believe that relaxation is important."

Shikamaru turned his attention away form the hedgehog and went back to thinking about palm trees. "I think I'll have to add to my list of things to do in the future is get a home by the beach, with palm trees like this one. I'm sure Temari would like it. With all the sand and everything, she'll feel right at home," Shikamaru carefully marked down that thought and drifted away to more daydreaming. Soon enough, he found himself dozing off to another nap.

"Knowing my luck something troublesome is bound to happen soon. I wonder how long I can relax before then."

Five seconds later, an explosion knocked Shikamaru out of his slumber. He looked back and saw a large column of black smoke rising. When he looked around, he noticed that the blue hedgehog he saw earlier was gone.

* * *

The force of the explosion was like in earthquake rocking everything in the mall. Everyone inside fell flat on their faces or at least lost their balance. For Naruto, this meant having his chilidog get splattered all over him. Chouji was smart and managed to stuff his entire foot long chilidog in his mouth.

"What the hell was that?" Naruto asked, wiping chili of his face.

"Hinata," yelled Ino. "Use your Byakagun to assess the situation."

Hinata nodded to Ino and activated the Byakagun. Her eyes pierced through every wall and gave telescopic vision. "There. At the mall's center."

Naruto, Hinata, Ino, and Chouji, soared through the mall, bouncing off of balconies and walls with record speed, just as if they were traveling the great forests of fire country.

"Hinata, what did you see?" Ino inquired as they moved.

"It was a hedgehog," she answered. "But it was a robot. It bombed a hole into the mall and it had a chaos emerald.

"Naruto, you can take down the robot," Ino said. "The rest of us will try to secure the perimeter and protect the civilians, okay?"

"Mmmmphhh," was all Chouji could say, his mouth still stuffed with chilidogs.

"Heh," Naruto grinned. "I never fought a robot before. I wonder what he can do."

"Just be careful, Naruto-kun," Hinata warned. Deep down though, she was thrilled to see Naruto spring into action once again.

"Would you like to know why you're going to die?"

"D-die? But I never did anything to you!" pleaded a hapless brown dog.

"That's precisely the point," Metal Sonic replied, squeezing the dog's neck with his clawed metallic hand. Out of the corner of his shimmering ruby eyes, the cerulean robot spotted a security guard readying his gun.

"Morons," murmured the robot as his red eyes glowed brighter until hot laser beams emitted from his eyes and burned down the guard until there was nothing left but a charred skeleton.

"So where was I?" the robots eyes cooled down and returned to face the victim in his grasp. "Oh, yes. You never did anything to me. You couldn't have. I could never feel any pain that you could bestow upon me. But now things are different. Now, I can truly feel. And now, I want to feel what it's truly like to kill. In other words, I'm killing you…," he rose up his other clawed hand and pointed two razor sharp fingers. The metallic claws shifted their shape and slithered around the air as if they were liquid and two fingers stabbed into the dog's eyes and then exploded through the back of his head. "…because it feels so good." Metal stood where he was, admiring the way the organic blood dripped over his chrome claws. "It feels so warm," he whispered evilly.

Metal Sonic disposed the rest of his victim's body into the mall's large fountain and turned to face the terrified crowd before him. He smirked as he saw them scatter like rabbits. "That's it," the robot laughed. "Run for your measly lives. Run from Metal Sonic!"

"Hey, Metal Sonic!"

Metal swung his head around, scanning the area to find the one who called out his name. The answer came in the form of the sole of a red sneaker smashing into his face, sending the robot hurling towards the ground. Despite the speed of the attacker, Metal could tell that the shoe belonged to a hedgehog, blue in color, and super fast.

"You don't look too happy," the blue hedgehog said in mock concern. What's the matter? Did you wake up on the wrong side of the goo filled glass tube?"

"So," Metal Sonic lifted up his head and locked his ruby lenses against the emerald eyes of his old foe. "Sonic the Hedgehog. My hated copy. Still taunting your enemies to distract them," Rockets burst from the heels of his red shoes and he surged forward, punching into Sonic's face. This time, it was his turn to hit the floor.

"Ha, you know how it is, Metal. Lately, I've had to deal with Shadow angsting around, and then there's some silver hedgehog supposedly looking to kill me because I'm gonna bring about the future end of the world or something like that. Somebody's gotta lighten up around here."

"First of all, you should know that 'angst' is not a verb. And second, when I'm through with you, I'll show you what 'angst' really means!"

Sonic held his ground, ready to move in reaction to any attack the robot would make.

But Metal Sonic did not attack. He just closed his eyes and put his arms together for a series of odd hand motions.

"What is he doing?" Sonic wondered.

"**Suiton Suikoudan no Jutsu!" (Water Shark Missile)**

The water inside the mall's decorative fountain that was until this point sitting there innocently now bubbled ferociously. A spiraling column of rushing water burst out of the fountain and blasted its way towards Sonic. The top of the water column looked like the head of a shark, complete with wide jaws filled with teeth. The shark missile crashed down onto Sonic, its teeth chomped down hard into his body.

"Argh! What kind of move…?" Sonic yelped out in pain as his blood spurted out from the shark bite. The water shark jerked its head around with Sonic clamped tight in its jaws, like a predator trying to break its meal into smaller bites.

"No. Not yet," Metal Sonic said quietly. The shark then slammed the hedgehog into the ground and it splashed apart into harmless water droplets.

Sonic laid there on the ground helpless and gasping for air. He saw his shoulder and upper chest were covered in teeth marks, his blood dripped forth liberally, the pain leaving him immobilized. He could barely move his head to see Metal Sonic looming over him.

"Need a hand? Here, let me help you up," Metal grabbed Sonic by the neck and slammed into the concrete wall. "You weren't expecting something like that, were you? I could have ended it right there with that technique. I could have fully disemboweled you with the very element you fear the most, but for some reason I feel that I'll need you alive just a little bit longer."

"I know it looks like you've won, Metal Sonic. But you've made one big mistake," Sonic seemed to be looking at something from the corner of his eye.

"Oh? And what's that?"

"You're in a shopping mall."

"Let go of Sonic!" shouted a high pitched voice. Metal saw a female pink hedgehog run towards him with her hammer. For some reason. Metal did nothing to react to Amy. He stood there calmly as if he wanted to be attacked. And Amy followed through. She gave a mighty swing and her magical piko piko hammer clanged against Metal's hide, sending him flying with a swarm of pink hearts following the red hammer's wake.

"I'd rather not kill you, Amy. I'll deal with you later," Metal gave Amy a forceful push into the wall, knocking her out cold. "I'm not finished with you yet," he glared at Sonic and wrapped his metallic claws around his neck. "Come with me," the rockets in his robotic shoes roared to life and sent the two blue hedgehogs soaring through the hole in ceiling and into the open sky.

Sonic knew exactly where Metal was taking him. And it wasn't a long trip.

"The ocean. Of all places."

"Behold your final sunset, Sonic," Metal turned his head to watch the orange sun sinking into the horizon.

"I didn't know you were the romantic type," Sonic joked, revealing a bloody smile.

"A joker to the very end, aren't you? You'll find that the sea has no sense of humor."

"Can't we at least go by water slide? Even Hydro City had water slides," Sonic joked with a smile.

"Aren't you in the wrong position to be smiling now, given the circumstances?" Metal grated.

"Nah, I wouldn't say that. I mean, you wanted the chaos emeralds right? Well, I've got mine," he said as a globe of blue light formed in his hand and out emerged the sky blue emerald.

In a blinding flash of blue light, Sonic violently shoved his fist into Metal's chest. Shards of the toughest metal scattered as Sonic's fist emerged from the robot's backside.

"Along with all the strength it gives me," Sonic added.

Metal's body slumped over Sonic's arm in defeat. He barely lifted up his head to face the hedgehog. Circuits buzzed wildly, suggesting that deactivation was near. The flames from the rocket shoes died down, but Sonic stayed floating in the air with the chaos emerald in hand. His free hand wiped the blood off his face. He knew he would need to get some help soon, but the battle at least was over.

"I know what you're thinking," said a mechanical voice from behind. "Trust me, it's not over yet."

"Huh? Sonic stared at the robot's body. "But I totally bashed you," he kept staring at the body in confusion until he saw that the robot dissolved into a form of water and dripped away.

"It's called a **Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu**. In other words, that was a water clone," Sonic felt a cold rush through his blood as another Metal Sonic appeared behind him. Metal sent a surprise kick to Sonic, causing him to fall all the way down into the water. The emerald fell out of his grasp and landed on the beach.

Sonic always had a way of sinking straight down like a rock whenever he entered a body of water. This was no exception, but this time, Metal Sonic reached into the surface with a metallic claw and fished the hedgehog out. "Not just yet, Sonic. I have to have you drown in a way like you've never drowned before," two clawed fingers came together as he spoke**, "Suiton Daibakure no Jutsu! (Water Element Huge Explosion Technique)**

With those words and that seal, Metal brought forth his chakra to call upon the forces of nature, creating a huge cyclone in the ocean. Sonic found himself being helplessly tossed around in the swirling waves. For extra cruel measure, Metal gave an additional push of his chakra to send the sea water into Sonic's mouth. Soon, the cyclone pulled him under and Sonic felt the all too familiar taste of drowning.

"You see, through my mastery of water jutsu, I've come to understand something. Everyone's individual chakra is attuned to one or more elements…as well as an opposing element. You get what I'm saying? It's not just that you can't swim or that you're afraid of water. No. You're very soul is weakened by it. Point is…you're going to experience the most agonizing death you could ever know."

"Sonic! NO!" Amy screamed while running down the beach. Tears scattered in the wind as they sparkled form her green eyes. An unspeakable dread froze her in her tracks. It came from the hateful smirk on Metal's lips. "Sonic. Is he…is he…?"

"Almost…" Metal answered softly. "Just another minute or so. He was always resilient. No reason to rush things, though."

Metal was clearly enjoying this moment. It all would have been perfect until a flying kick smacked him hard in the head and sent him staggering. Metal's powers of chakra control made so that he didn't fall into the water, but instead, kept him standing firmly on the surface.

He saw that his attacker was able to do the same thing.

"Who the…?"

Standing in a battle stance on the waters was a blonde human, eyes blue as Sonic's quills. A metal plate, gleaming red in the sunset, rested on his forehead, sporting a strange spiral symbol in the center. What struck Metal Sonic most though was the toothy grin on the guy's face.

He hated cocky bastards like that.

"Yatta! My turn to fight! Thank you for waiting, everyone!" the kid waved and shouted energetically.

"Who are you talking to? Who was waiting?" Metal asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"At last! It's time to show off all my awesome moves on you!" he went on just as loudly, his arms pumping up and down in the air. Not far behind, the two kunoichis, Ino and Hinata flickered in.

"There's no way a stupid looking human like this can possibly be a threat," Metal thought. "I'll kill him quickly."

With Metal's attention turned to the loudmouth, he broke his hold over the cyclone. Amy saw that this was her chance and she dove into the sea and pulled Sonic back onto the shore.

"I was warned that some strange freaks might get involved. This guy might actually be in my databanks."

From inside his cold red eyes, Metal's scanning program analyzed the hyperactive ninja before him.

"I know you," the robot said. "You are—"

"Stop!" Naruto pointed his index finger sharply at Metal. "I should be the one introducing myself! I'm Uzumaki Naruto! No way will I lose to you!"

"Naruto! Stop provoking him!" Ino shouted as she jumped into the fray. "He just defeated the planet's greatest hero."

"So what? I meant what I said."

While Naruto confronted Metal, Ino and Hinata went to see Sonic. "Sonic the Hedeghog, my name is Yamanaka Ino. I'm a ninja from—"

"Wait," he held up hand at her. "Heroes from another dimension, right? The assholes on your world got tired of you, so they took a vacation here. Now they all want a piece of me and some chaos emeralds for dessert? Happens all the time," he said nonchalantly and waved his hand as if dismissing the subject as boring.

"Here, Sonic-kun," Hinata said, handing a tiny jar. "Take this ointment. It's good for your wounds."

"Thanks," Sonic said, snatching the jar." Uh…," he wanted to ask the girl, but she seemed to spaced out, gazing in amazement at Naruto and Metal Sonic. "What was your name again?"

Hinata brought her attention back to Sonic. "Hyuuga Hinata."

"Interesting," Metal said. "You're the first human to come out of nowhere and kick me like that. You're also going to be the last." Metal's eyes flared up with energy and he released another blast of lethal power.

Naruto was struck squarely in the chest. Metal smirked and waited to see him die a terrible burning death, but instead, all he got to see was Naruto's body disappear in a cloud of smoke.

"Do clones count?" came Naruto's voice from behind, along with another jump kick, knocking him down.

"I seems I'm not the only one who can do that," Metal said, glaring at the new Naruto. "But there's only so many clones a single ninja can create."

"Wanna bet?" Naruto dared. "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" In great clouds of white smoke, countless Narutos littered the beach. Clones from all the way down the beach circled Metal. They yelled out in unison and charged the robot.

"How very interesting," Metal said, staying calm amidst the chaos. "Not like it'll be enough." He curled himself up into a metallic spin dash and drove himself right through a crowd of shadow clones, blowing them into puffs of smoke a he did so. Metal got out of his ball form and could only smirk at the oncoming clone army. He formed his own unique taijutsu stance and leapt into the wave of clones. Upon collision, an all out melee blew out between Metal Sonic and the Naruto bunshins.

"Man, look at these guys go," Sonic said. "I've gotta see how he does that."

Metal performed a calculated, complicated set of attacks that came from a combination of being a robot, chaos powers, and all new chakra training. Based on the moves he saw Metal perform, Sonic had a bad feeling that the robot still had not revealed his true potential.

Hinata blushed with pride at the sight before her. So many Narutos fearlessly battled one of the most dangerous creatures on Mobius. She was loving it.

"Hey," a spinning blue ball rushed from the shore, crashing into Metal with all its homing attack. "Our rematch isn't over yet."

Upon seeing Sonic back so soon, albeit, looking like hell, Metal's demeanor changed from slightly annoyed to insanely mad. "Why aren't you fish food?" he demanded.

"Just lucky, I guess," Sonic shrugged. "They say that luck too is a skill."

"Don't push it," was all Metal said as another shark missile erupted from the ocean and gunned straight for the hedgehog.

"You're really cheap, you know that?" Sonic yelled as he tried to run for it, but the jutsu was already locked on, and he felt the shadow of the water attack hover over him, quickly descending to devour him. Before he could react, several Narutos jumped in at the last minute took the full brunt of the water blast. The water shark dispersed into a small shower, taking with it only a couple of kage bunshins that instantly poofed away.

"Kid," Sonic grinned Naruto's way. "You must be my guardian angel or something. You even smell like chilidogs."

"Damn, my clothes still smell like chili," Naruto groaned. "That's right! I still owe you for that explosion," he pointed his accusing finger at Metal. A gang of Narutos hurled themselves at the robot. Some came kicking, others came with their kunai, and some simply crashed their fists straight into Metal's hide.

For every attack Naruto was able to land on Metal, another clone poofed away. Metal turned out to be very good at counterattacking multiple clones. He never let a clone touch him without slashing one apart with his claws or blasting one with lasers.

Naruto's grin slowly faded when he noticed that his army of clones was dwindling. It was time to try something new.

He reached his arm back and slowly and let the unearthly metal slide out of its sheath with a metallic 'shwing.' "Heh heh. I've been waiting to try this out, dattebayo!"

Only one Naruto was armed with a sword, Metal noticed. For some reason, his weapon couldn't be duplicated like other objects. He was sure this was the original Naruto.

"If it's a sword fight you want…" Metal said while extending one arm. It started to liquefy and shift to form a long chrome blade, "…I'll be happy to oblige."

The two charged each other like dueling samurais. Despite Metals' greater speed, Naruto was confident. He was holding the sword of Izunagi, the sword of the Fourth Hokage, Konoha's Yellow Flash. The katana burned a bright yellow to remind him of it. Naruto drew closer, yelled, and swung a powerful yellow chakra filled slash.

Metal dodged. He avoided getting cut in half, but Naruto settle for slicing his arm off.

Naruto felt faster than ever before. No question. This was the Yondaime's sword. He knew that he could cut the robot clean in half with another attack.

Metal Sonic stared contemplatively at the damage to his arm. At the end of his arm, circuits buzzed and wires flapped about alive with high voltage electricity.

Then, the robot smiled. Perfect chance to show off a new move.

"I dare you to do that again," he taunted at Naruto.

"Get ready for the scrap yard, Rusty," Naruto shot back and charged with the katana.

Unexpectedly, Metal launched his damaged arm. Loose wires came to life like snakes and wrapped around Naruto's arm, catching him off guard. Then, Metal unleashed a powerful current of electricity up the wires and conducted it into Naruto.

"Guh!" Naruto yelped as an untold number of volts surged through his body, forcing him to drop his sword. His whole body was flashing yellow as bolts of electricity swam around him.

"You should know what's happening. It's not just electromagnetic energy. I can conduct my chakra through my circuits, converting it into electricity," Metal explained. "I'm sure you know that it's not a good idea to mix it with water." He easily flung Naruto into the air with the wires attached and hurled him towards the ocean, preparing to dunk him under "And Sonic thought he had it bad with water."

Naruto's muscles felt like shutting down under the powerful shocks, but still he summoned all his strength to pull against the livewires. Every budge was like moving mountains. There was definitely no time to break free before taking the ocean.

"NARUTO-KUN!" Hinata screamed. Suddenly, a hand pulled her aside.

"Come on, Hinata," Sonic said, snapping her out of her fear. "We can save Naruto together."

Naruto was seconds away from plunging into the water when a Sonic Spin came buzzing in and cut through the livewires, severing the connection between Metal Sonic and Naruto.

"I'm coming, Naruto-kun!" yelled out Hinata as she flung herself towards the waters and caught Naruto in her arms, while planting her chakra firmly on the surface.

"Hinata…" Naruto said, barely audibly. "You saved me."

"N-naruto-kun," was all she could say before fainting.

"Hinata! Why does she faint every time she gets close to me?"

* * *

Shikamaru, who had been hiding behind his palm tree, surveyed the brawl on the beach. "This battle is going nowhere. It's a good thing he hasn't seen me yet."

Metal Sonic wasn't finished yet. He brought his hands together and matched them back and forth, creating another seal.

"Damn! I'll have to stop him from pulling off another troublesome jutsu," Shikamaru thought. "Seeing the clouds in front of the sunset is nice, but my work is more important. It looks like I've waited long enough," he moved down towards Metal Sonic, stretching out his shadow.

From the corner of his eye, Metal saw the shadow stretch his way. He didn't know what it was supposed to do, but he didn't care to find out, and so he cancelled his jutsu and leapt as far away as he could get from the snaking shadow.

"Hey, Naruto," Shikamaru voice rang across the beach. "Are you really gonna let a woman protect you?"

"You should worry about your own skin!" Metal warned and fired off a small missile from his stomach that flew towards Shikamaru.

"Damn! I don't have time to dodge that!" Suddenly, a huge gust of wind tornadoed the missile away, knocking it off its course and into the ocean where it exploded with a harmless splash. Shikamaru turned to see Temari with her tessen fully opened, her three purple stars revealed.

"Baka! I can't believe you're still going on with that crap about men and women. How can someone with a brain like yours be so stupid?" Temari asked sardonically, coming up from behind.

"Well, you're more of a man than most women, anyway," Shikamaru replied, acting bored by her comments.

At that, Temari's forehead throbbed. Her dark blue eyes shimmered with fury. "What the hell did you just say?!"

"Okay, okay," Shikamaru lifted his arms up in defense. "You're a delicate flower. There's nothing manly about you whatsoever."

"Are you calling me weak, you sexist bastard?" Temari boomed. "I'll show you!" she turned and aimed her fan in Metal Sonic's direction.

"Ninpou Kaimaitachi no Jutsu!" (Sickling Wind Blast) A powerful force of wind exploded from her fan, and poured out its rage upon the beach. Palm trees bent over in the wind, many were cut apart by its slashing hurricane force. The power knocked Metal off his feet and cut away at his rigid hide.

Shikamaru braced himself from the slicing winds and shielded his face with his arms. When the winds died down, he took a quick survey of the damage for future reference. Just about everybody was off balance, many trees were uprooted, and Metal Sonic was lying face down in the sand motionless. Shikamaru made a troubled face when he saw he palm tree that he was just earlier daydreaming under was sliced apart.

"Damn," he mumbled. "I liked that palm tree. Sitting under that was so relaxing."

Suddenly, he heard the whoosh of Temari's large tessen swinging towards him. Through Temari's will, the wind lifted Shikamaru up onto the fan where he found Temari riding on top. "Like I tried to tell you before, if you really need something to relax your troubled mind, I'm all you need," her teal eyes gleaming mischievously, she wrapped her arms around Shikamaru and pulled him into a deep, passionate kiss. With the two of them hovering in the air, they set a scene for everyone to see.

While their comrades watched in shock, some random bystanders clapped and cheered.

"How troublesome. I only picked Temari for my team because I thought it would be a good idea to have a jounin with us. I didn't expect things to turn out this way. And now everyone's watching us like we're in those troublesome romance movies Ino likes."

Temari pulled him even closer to take him away from his thoughts. She wanted him completely."

"Temari…" Shikamaru stood there on top of the hovering fan, not sure what to say.

"What? I thought it was the right moment. The two of us on the beach, the sun setting into the sea…seeing the way Hinata cares for Naruto, and how that pink hedgehog wanted to protect Sonic…it felt so right."

"You didn't have to wait for the scenery," Shikamaru smiled wryly. "You're too spontaneous for that." With his own unnatural spontaneity, he embraced her and returned the kiss.

Metal Sonic struggled to lift himself up after that wind attack. He focused on his severed arm, turning it into liquid chaos metal, molding it back into his original arm. An arm which he pointed towards Temari's flying fan. The

"How troublesome all you women are," Metal growled. "I've decided that I'm going to kill all you worthless females first!"

"What did you just say?" Temari asked, her killing intent started rising.

"You heard what I said. You human girls are annoying. It makes me want to destroy you all."

"Metal Sonic…," Temari said." Cold, calculating, having messed up opinions about women…do you know what that makes you?"

"What?"

"An evil Shikamaru!"

"She's comparing me to that psychotic robot? Mendokuse…" He knew that blows were about to be exchanged, so he jumped off the fan as quickly as possible and ducked for cover behind the sand dunes.

"That is something I will not allow!" With a flick of her arm, Temari closed up her tessen and jumped into air, swinging the fan like a giant club. "Hyaa!" she sent the tessen crashing into Metal Sonic. A sandstorm erupted from the impact, concealing the area occupied by Temari and Metal.

A satisfied smug rested on Temari's lips, that was only magnified by the twinkle of eyes. She gleefully waited for the sand clouds to settle.

But when the dust dispersed, she only saw a small crater in the spot where her fan struck. Metal was nowhere to be seen.

"I meant what I said," the robot's inhuman voice spoke.

Temari felt a cold sweat run down her face. Her eyes darted across frantically, searching for the blue monster.

"Women are so troublesome," he said sadistically. Temari saw Metal at the edge of the shore, with Amy captured in his grasp. With his other hand, he placed a razor sharp metallic claw on her neck. He allowed it to slowly run along the front of her neck. Amy's blood trickled out, running along her pink fur and over the robot's cold fingers.

Amy's whole body trembled. Her hammer lay on the sands only a few feet away, but there was no way she could reach it. She looked up at Sonic with hot tears flowing down her face.

"Sonic…" she croaked his name. He must have stood just a few yards away, but to her it felt like the distance was infinite.

"Why? Why do you call out for him to save you? Why must you always do that?" Metal asked. "Can't you see that not even Sonic is fast enough to save your life? He knows that if he tried anything, I could cut off your head like a clipped rose. They all know it…"

Amy didn't give an answer.

"Let me show you something" Metal's entire body morphed into a liquid silvery liquid state. When he solidified, Amy saw that it was now Sonic the Hedgehog who held her in his hands. The Red eyes replaced with a set of emerald ones, his hands felt warm to the touch. Not cold metal. "I was always real. He was just a copy."

"No! It's not true! You're just a robot!"

"Once that was true," Metal admitted. "But overtime, I evolved. I gained free will. I copied his genetic coding. Your genetic coding. My master taught me to harness my power. Compared to me, Sonic is nothing!"

Amy shut her eyes and turned away. "That doesn't make you better! You'll never be Sonic!" Her tears continued to flow through her shut eyelids.

"He won't even acknowledge you," Metal placed his fingers under her chin and gently turned her head back to face him. Something forced Amy to open her eyes. "But I will."

Without warning, he kissed her on the lips. Amy tried to fight against it, but Metal pulled her deeper into it, squeezing hard on her shoulders

Sonic was shocked. He had seen a lot of things. He never really imagined himself kissing Amy. He never dreamt he'd be watching himself do it. It was a surreal for moment for all of them.

"I felt that," Metal said to her when he ended the kiss. "Years ago, when I captured you and met you for the first time, I never knew such feelings existed. But that's all changed now. I'm not just a killing machine. Not anymore."

"I don't understand what's going on, but that robot hedgehog has a crush the pink hedgehog," Naruto spoke up, tired of just watching. "Don't worry, Sonic. I've got just the right technique to stop him," Naruto formed a seal with his hands. Sonic saw that all his clones looked prepared for the next move.

"**Sexy Hedgehog no Jutsu!"**

POOF!

Standing in place of all the Narutos were forms of Amy, completely naked, save for a little bit of leftover mist from the transformation.

All the different Amys stood in various sexy poses. Many crowded around the now stunned Metal Sonic and Amy.

"Mekkaku-sama," they cooed sexily.

"Come play with us, Mekkaku."

Metal was so stunned that he released his grip on Amy, who fainted from shock.

Everyone else slapped their foreheads.

Sonic meanwhile, felt a rush of blood burst through his nose. The nosebleed was so powerful that it launched him into the air, causing him to crash back down into the ocean.

"Naruto!" Ino yelled. "Stop trying to kill the hero of Mobius!"

"I'm not trying! He protested and reverted back to his original form "I didn't know that was gonna happen. Usually, it's only at effective if you're a super pervert. I forgot robots don't get nosebleeds. But at least he dropped Amy."

"This time, I should be glad that I'm a robot. I suppose I should thank you for finishing Sonic off for me," Metal chuckled, having fully recovered from his state of shock. "Dealing with the rest of you will be almost too easy."

"Bring it on, you crappy excuse for a can opener!" Naruto snarled. Already, his clones charged Metal from all directions. He meanwhile scanned his eyes on the sand to see where he dropped his sword. "Damn! Where is it? If can hold him in place, then I can get down there and chop him up."

"Forget the sword, Naruto," Shikamaru flickered in beside him. "I have a plan to stop him. Just have your clones keep him busy. Ino, go fish Sonic out of the water before he drowns. Temari, look after Amy. We can't afford to have her get captured again," Shikamaru turned his head this way and that. "Where did Hinata and Chouji go? Never mind, we can do this without them."

Temari lifted Amy in her arms and took the piko piko hammer with her.

Ino jumped into the water and came back with Sonic in tow. He let out a hoarse cough, spat out some water, and sniffled his nose. "What kind of crappy ninja move was that?"

"A variant of my seduction technique," Naruto explained, treating Sonic's question as honest inquiry, rather than a rhetorical insult. "I never transformed into a hedgehog before so we were lucky I pulled it off without making her really fat."

A fat Amy? That made Sonic snicker a little bit as he created a mental picture of Amy, her pink flesh almost bulging out of her dress. He thought of Amy's stomach jiggling up and down as she would run after him, shouting "Sonikku in a deep voice. But he pushed those thoughts away when he remembered Metal Sonic. "Doesn't he ever quit? It's like he's gotten ten times stronger since our last fight. I'm thinking you guys have something to do with it?"

"What makes you say that?" Naruto asked.

"Whenever he starts talking incoherently, something crazy happens and I nearly get killed. You guys have shown the ability to do the same thing."

"It may be true that Metal has apparently learnt a lot of techniques in a very short time," Shikamaru said. "But that doesn't mean he's a good ninja. After all, there's a lot more to being a shinobi than just techniques."

"Sounds like you've got an idea," Sonic smirked.

Shikamaru pulled out two pieces of paper. "These are exploding tags that can adhere to any surface. You're the only one fast enough to actually touch the troublesome robot. After you do that, we'll handle the rest."

Amy got up with a groan. She ran a hand around her throat and felt a bandage where her cut marks were. "What happened?"

"Don't ask what happened, but what is going to happen?" Temari told her and handed Amy her hammer.

She looked up at Temari, still somewhat in a daze. "You want my help to kill Metal?"

Temari gave her a sly smirk. "I want you to help me with a new technique."

"Looks like Temari is up to something," Shikamaru noticed. "Knowing her it'll be unpredictable, but I'll have to wait until she does it."

"All right! Once Sonic draws his fire, he'll be in our trap. Let's Go!" Shikamaru ordered.

"Stand still, you bastard copy!" Metal roared, his anger was as hot as the energy he fired from his eyes at Sonic, who was running circles around him.

"That'd be no fun," Sonic said in mock glum face. "But if you insist." Unexpectedly, Sonic screeched to a stop.

"What is that idiot doing?" Shikamaru who was looking on asked. "He's not supposed to just stand there."

Metal gave a sight smirk and fired another bolt of energy straight into Sonic. He fully expected the hedgehog to fry to a crisp, but somehow, the lasers passed right through him as if he was a ghost.

"Impossible," cursed Metal. "That was an after image from his blurring speed!"

"Ya see, I have a few ninja moves of my own," Sonic laughed, jumping Metal from behind and slapping Shikamaru's tags directly onto his eyes.

"That's it? Are you just trying to obstruct my vision? I'll remove this and kill you at the same time!" Sonic sensed the hot glow of Metal's eye beams power up. He wasn't entirely sure what was going to happen. But then, Metal released his energy and…

Ka-BOOM!

Metal screamed as an immense explosion engulfed him. Bits and pieces of his face blew apart and scattered onto the sands. Sonic even noticed the red orbs that served as the robot's eyes were destroyed.

"Heh heh," Shikamaru chuckled. "Use your techniques carefully, after giving some thought to what you're doing. Otherwise, they'll be used against you, baka."

Sonic then appeared right behind Shikamaru. "Not bad, eh? Went exactly as planned."

"Yeah, not bad," Shikamaru said outwardly. Inwardly, he said, "Bah! What a showoff! He scared the crap out of everybody with that after image nonsense. He's as bad as Naruto!"

Metal wasn't dead yet. He still managed to get up. His face was now marked with empty smoldering eye sockets. It was more difficult to reform than his arm, but in the end, he knew that even that could be repaired, given time.

"Idiots…" mumbled Metal Sonic. "This is the end. It's only the beginning."

"Shut up, rust bucket," Naruto gnarled. "We beat your metallic butt."

"Maybe you beat me," he admitted. "But not my master." Once again, the robot stood up, despite his injuries. "And with my master's will, I can't die."

After focusing for a moment, a pattern of burning red marks slithered all over Metal's body in a digital like pattern. "This is a new one, you see. I'm the first inorganic being to receive a cursed seal.

Shikamaru's eyebrows furrowed, "A cursed seal? That means…"

Naruto swore viciously. "Orochimaru's behind all this! I should've known!"

Dark purple flames rose from the holes in Metals' body. As the mark of the seal overcame him, his blue body took on a sickly dark gray color. Dark violet lights appeared in his eye sockets, like embers of purple fire.

"I never thought I would ever return to beat you Sonic," the robot told him. "But Orochimaru-sama found me and promised me power and victory. He has made me a greater Sonic than you could ever hope to be!"

"Wait a sec," Naruto got closer to the cursed machine. "If you're with Orochimaru, that means you've seen Sasuke, right?

"Uchiha Sasuke? Heh heh heh," Metal laughed at the name. "He is stronger than even me. When I last heard from him, he too went after the chaos emeralds."

"Dammit! Where is he?" Naruto demanded.

"Where else? Wherever there are chaos emeralds. But he's not your problem! I am!"

Temari gritted her teeth at the horrifying sigh that lay before her. "At this state, it appears he might try to do something desperate. We must kill him now. Are you ready, Amy?"

"Yeah!" Amy affirmed, putting a tight grip with both hands on her hammer.

"Dai Kamaitachi no Jutsu!" (Great Slashing Wind Technique)

The fury of one of Temari's most powerful jutsus ripped apart the beach with hurricane force. The winds howled deafeningly, darkening the sky, awakening the once placid waters, churning into a violent storm of waves. The surviving palm trees bent down in submission to its merciless force. And like a hurricane, Amy flew in its midst, unharmed as if she was in the eye of the storm. When the moment was right, Amy swirled the piko piko hammer in her hands, a spiral of wind gathered, with the hammer in the center.

"Amazing," Shikamaru said, analyzing the technique. "That hammer is absorbing the energy of the winds, amplifying its hitting power. If this works, it should result in an attack that's stronger than both Temari's jutsu and Amy's hammer combined.

The winds soon took on a pink hue and Amy swirled her hammer faster and faster. Metal Sonic heard the oncoming rush of the hurricane. Seeing the face of the monstrous robot, Amy reared back her weapon, ready to bring out her greatest swing ever.

She wasn't angry at Metal Sonic. Far from it.

In truth, she didn't even think about him or what he did to her. The only thing she could think about was the absolute rush of flying through the storm faster than she had ever gone before.

Amy was ecstatic.

With Metal in her sights, Amy's mouth opened wide in joy. The rush sent tears from her eyes scattering like tiny crystals into the sky.

She shouted at the top of her lungs as the hammer collided into the metal. A powerful explosion ensued. One composed of thousands of pink hearts swarming in the winds. Metal Sonic was left flinging into the sky. With her hammer, Amy was able to control the wind to send her flying upwards and above the robot.

"One more time!" she proclaimed and pounded her hammer hard into Metal Sonic's skull. The hit was so hard that it sent a shockwave across the air, land, and sea.

Then, everything was quiet.

When the slashing winds died down and the explosive hearts dispersed, Amy and Metal gently floated back to earth. Shuffling over to Sonic, she dropped the hammer and winked, "I did it, Sonic," she said before collapsing into his arms.

"Is he dead?" Temari asked, slowly approaching the robot's beaten body.

A single robotic hand lifted itself into the air, causing her to back up.

"Man, he takes a lot of punishment!" Sonic bristled.

"I told you before, Sonic," Metal spoke, his vice interrupted by constant buzzing of broken circuits. "With my seal, I am unkillable. I am going to kill you. Then, I'll kill Amy. And I'll get rid of that orange loudmouth, and that lazy ass bastard who thinks he's so smart. Then I'll kill the girl with the fan, that shy girl, the dumb blonde chick…, and where'd that fatass that I saw earlier go?"

"ROLL!" From the sky, a giant red ball plummeted down the earth, forming a shadow right over Metal's area.

"What the hell is that?" Metal shrieked.

"That," Shikamaru replied with a smirk, "is what happens when you make fun of big boned people."

The massive ball of meat impacted into Metal like a meteor, fully crushing him underneath its awesome weight.

"I knew you'd come along sooner or later, Chouji," Shikamaru said as Chouji uncurled the ball form and revealed his double sized self.

"You always were good at dealing the final heavy blows," Ino cheered. Chouji grinned from ear to ear from her compliment.

"Well, aren't you going to get up?" Shikamaru beckoned. "It's troublesome to have you just lying there on the sand in a suit of armor. People will think it's weird.

"Sorry, Shikamaru. I can't get up. I attacked too soon after eating all those chilidogs. It hurts too much to move."

"Another stomach ache? Mendokuse…"

At this, Ino immediately changed her tune regarding Chouji. "Why do you always have to make our team look stupid?! I'll never let you eat chilidogs again. They probably give you gas, anyway."

Naruto tried to suppress his laughter. He should've guessed that somebody would call Chouji a fatass and get killed for it.

"Naruto-kun, what's so funny?" Hinata asked.

"Oh, hey, Hinata? Where have you been?"

"I found the chaos emeralds we were looking for. Sonic dropped this light blue one on the beach and I found the blue one with my Byakagun. Metal Sonic must have dropped it when he was fighting Sonic."

"Oooooh! Good! You found those chaos emeralds, Hinata," Sonic said happily. "I'd better take these for safe keeping," he snatched the emeralds from her hands and ran over to Amy.

"Hey, Ames," he shook her awake. "I just wanted to say that amazing! You totally floored Metal!"

"Thanks, Sonic," she said, smiling groggily, her eyes half closed.

"Anyways, I'm gonna get out of here before the paparazzi shows up. Want me to take you home?" he asked and pulled her up from the sand.

"No, that's okay, Sonic. "I think I'll just stay right here. It's supposed to be a beautiful night."

"All right," he shrugged. "I'm heading off now. If Metal Sonic was right, I'd better find Shadow and see what he's doing. Sonic should have been able to make it to the mall in seconds, but for some reason, he couldn't seem to move his feet off the beach. Troubled, Sonic looked down at his feet, but saw nothing but a shadow. A shadow that stretched back to Shikamaru.

Shikamaru stood in front of him, hunched over, and looking very tired. He made a face that seemed to show that he was more annoyed than Sonic.

"It's troublesome to stop a guy when he's in a hurry, but I can't just let you leave with those emeralds," he sighed.

Sonic simply cracked a small smile. It looked like this was going to be one long night**.**

**There's Chapter 6. Tell me what you think of it!**

**Next chapter: Sasuke vs. Shadow! And a whole lot more!**


	7. City of Devils

**The Kitsune in the Leaves**

**(Does a bunch of hand seals) Koushin no Jutsu! (Update Technique)**

**Here's the first chapter of the New Year! This was the longest I went without updating, but on the other side, this is the longest chapter yet, so without wasting any time let's do those review responses.**

**Darkincarnation: Thanks a lot for reviewing! I know Sonic and Naruto can be a weird combination, but I thought it would be fun to make a story about them since I like them both a lot.**

**azngirlchibi: You're right. I think that was the weirdest chapter so far. When I finished, I read what I wrote and I was all "Oh, man, this one looks weird. Are they gonna like this stuff?" But I thought it was all right in the end so I updated. Looks like it turned out all right.**

**Soul Teller: (looks at picture of Super Kyubi Naruto and faints from overwhelming chakra) I did not think of that. That's a pretty crazy idea. I'll have to think about what happens if I did that!**

**captain deoxys: I thought about Black Doom. I thought about having him be a member of the Akatsuki or even the mysterious leader! But then, I think there's enough badguys in the story as it is. I've already got Orochimaru, Sasuke, and the Sound. Then, later Itachi and the Akatsuki are coming, so it's pretty crowded. I did give some thought to Orochimaru searching for Iblis as part of the plot, but I don't know.**

**Dragon Man 180: Shoot Sasuke in the ass, huh? That's pretty cruel even for Shadow's standards, although he does deserve it. Hopefully all the heroes will start working together, but Sonic is a hothead so that might be pretty hard. Tails is making great friends with everybody so far though, so he could bring everybody together.**

**Lycropath: I know, I made Temari a little too ditzy, but writing her and Shikamaru was a lot of fun. There should be more ShikaTema fics. I never got into the ShikaIno pairing.**

**Blue Mage Quartet: Thanks! I like Hinata a lot and I plan to have her play a big role in this story. Meanwhile, Metal Sonic has gotten a lot tougher and I hope I'm not spoiling anything by saying that he's not dead yet and he will return!**

**Apple Panda-chan: Knew you'd love the ShikaTema stuff. It's one of my favorite couples, too! As to the question is this sonamy, the answer is that I don't know yet. I like that couple, but I also like shadamy. I said in the beginning that I take pairings requests. So far I got requests for ShikaTema, NaruHina, and ShadAmy, so it looks like those will be the pairings.**

**WriterApprentice: Yes, the chaos emeralds are originally from Mobius. How it wound up in Sand village is one of the mysteries that still need to be answered.**

**Forse the deathmaster: Thanks for waiting. I know that this update took even longer, but I hope you found it worth the wait. The Shadow vs. Sasuke battle was something I wanted to make really good, so it took awhile.**

**The Shaman Master: I am going to say what happens with Kiba, Tails, and Shino. It's all in this chapter. As for the Gaara plushie, Gaara himself will arrive later, so that will be interesting.**

**Angelus-alvus: Thanks again for reviewing!**

**Green Raccoon: Thanks and I'm really glad you loved the big fight. It was really long because I wanted everybody to participate.**

**Zohaku: Sakura could fight Rouge, but I think Sakura is way stronger! They'll meet each other in this chapter and we'll get to see what happens. As for Naruto, he'll soon use the power of the Kyubi. And you're right. This means that Naruto is somehow connected to Tails.**

**TC chan: Ella is Orochimaru? That really made me laugh! Oh, man! Who would've suspected that the Snake sannin is Chris's maid! That's so creepy! And I noticed that there are two seiyuus for Big. The other one is the voice of Baki. So that means that Big is Gaara's sensei, too! I feel like I need to write a chapter now where Big somehow acquires the sharingan. That probably won't happen, but it'd be funny if it did.**

**soninaru: Thanks! Glad you liked it so far!**

**Melody's last song: The last chapter was meant to be funny, but this one will have a lot more angst, as you might have guessed from the Sasuke vs. Shadow fight. They're going to unleash every last bit of angst they have! XD**

**Jlargent: Thanks for reviewing and I'm glad you liked the fights! I love writing fight scenes and there will be a lot more!**

**Tara the 2 tailed fox: Don't worry about Knuckles. You'll find out what happens to him in this chapter! Hope ya like it!**

**Morph: Thanks for checking out this fic. You're right that it's in part 2 of the Naruto and it's all the SegaSonic world, except swatbots, which I'm just used to for some reason and the "power ring" idea is in the comics, but I got the idea from Sonic X.**

**Silver Horror: Thanks for reviewing again and I will continue and try to make it really cool!**

**KirbyRinku: Oooh! Multiple reviews! I love it when people do that. I'm glad you're liking the story so much. You're right that Tails doesn't have such a high IQ, but then again Shadow doesn't know that. And don't worry about Aoi. He will not be in this story.**

**BitterSweetCrimson: I'll admit that I enjoy blood and gore, too, so you will get to see it sometimes. And there will be lots of fire! About the love thing, I can understand that relationships can get weird, but when a guy gets tortured by evil snake ninjas, people's real feelings tend to come out when that happens. At least, I imagine that's what would happen.**

**Chapter VII: City of Devils**

Tails stood before the massive double iron doors that led into Dr. Robotnik's command center. For some reason, he had a surprisingly easy time getting this far. Was Robotnik trying to lull him into a false sense of security? But he came too far to fall for something like that. Tails had to be ready for anything and so he popped one of the soldier pills the dog ninja gave him. Immediately the effects of the pill kicked in and Tails felt a burning energy boost flow inside him. He felt as if he ate enough to last him for weeks. Every cell in his body was fueled with vigor. Even his injured limbs wanted to jump up and do something.

The whole feeling made Tails grin. After this was over, he would have to remind himself to replicate those soldier pills. But for now, he used his burst of energy to push open the doors and dash inside to face Robotnik.

Tails already had the whole scene played out in his head. He was sure that he would be greeted by Robotnik's best sentinels surrounding him. Each armed with their laser rifles. In the midst of it all, Dr. Robotnik would sit on his master chair cackling arrogantly about how he would win. And then, the whole room would erupt into a loud climactic battle.

But that's not what happened.

The command center was empty and silent as a tomb. The only sound was the slow creaking of the heavy doors and the echoes of Tails' slow, careful footsteps through the hollow chamber. The lights were out, too. The usual beaming lights were gone in place of a deep, dark red that bathed the chamber, focusing mostly on Robotnik's throne.

As Tails expected from the atmosphere, the doctor was missing from his own chair. Tails stepped closer into the light to inspect the doctor's throne and the master computer system that sat behind it. There was something covered in the chair, a thick dark liquid slowly dripping off the chair and flowing down the walls. There wasn't a lot, but it was definitely noticeable. Tails rand a gloved finger over the black stuff and saw that it was blood.

"Must be Robotnik's," Tails deduced. "Is he still alive? Maybe Shadow got to him…or somebody else?"

Whatever happened here, Tails decided to set it aside and turned his attention to the computer. The first thing that drew his attention was screen that displayed the ninjas he met earlier taking on the spider robot. The guy with the bugs and the guy with the dog.

"Get ready, Akamaru," Kiba said to his monstrous red dog. "I'll use my beast technique."

No sooner than he said it, Kiba brought his hands together. His unusually long fingernails grew longer, sharper. Same for his teeth. His features turned more beastlike. A low growl emitted from behind his gnarling teeth. A growl that Akamaru shared with him. The growl they always gave before using their technique.

**"Gatsuuga!" (Double Fang Destroyer)**

The two transformed into two spinning columns of black and red that drove into the spider's metallic hide. The robot released a shrill cry from its fanged jaws and quickly counterattacked by spitting large, sticky strands of webbing at Akamaru, the larger beast. Upon impact, the webbing forced Akamaru out of his spinning cyclone and glued him to the walls of the factory floor.

"Kuso! It got Akamaru!" roared Kiba, who also undid his spin. "This thing looks tough, but Akamaru and I shouldn't need to resort to using our Garouga (Double Piercing Fang) against it."

"Wait a sec," Tails said to himself. "Robotnik must've been controlling that thing from right here. He's gone and most likely not coming back. If the machine's running on autopilot, I could just take over the controls."

It took only a matter of seconds for Tails to figure out which controls were used to operate the robot. Another second later, and he found out how to speak through the machine.

"Hey, guys," Tails' voice boomed from the spider's mouth.

"Tails, is that you?" Kiba asked, not entirely sure if this was a trick or not.

"Yeah, I made it into Robotnik's chamber and took over the controls.

"So that means you defeated Robotnik?" Shino inquired.

"Yeah, I uh…kicked his butt. He's gone."

"Well, that's a relief," Kiba reverted back to full human form. "Not that we couldn't have dealt with that on our own."

"We would have most likely been killed," Shino said honestly. "We owe Tails our lives."

"Heh heh, don't mention it," Tails rubbed the back of his head and tried to sound humble. "I should warn you, these controls are a little busted, and so the spider might wake up and attack on its own, so I just pushed the self-destruct button. The thing'll explode in a couple of seconds."

"Self-destruct?" Kiba's voice rang on the intercom. "How big an explosion are we talking about?"

"Uhh…I don't really know," Kiba and Shino could tell that Tails just shrugged nervously. "I thought you guys would get away with your secret explosion dodging ninja technique."

Kiba opened his mouth to say something, but the screen turned to static before Tails could hear anything.

"Hey! Are you guys all right?" Tails shouted.

"We're fine," Shino responded through a thick static.

"Speak for yourself, Shino," he heard the voice of Kiba growl. "Not all of us have bug clones."

"Make a hairball clone or something," he said softly. Shino knew that the more serious he could say that, the more it would annoy Kiba. "Let's just go. If you feel well enough to complain, you're not injured." While he spoke, Shino's bugs were already at work breaking away the webbing and freeing Akamaru.

* * *

Far below the command center at the other side of the city, Rouge the Bat paced through Robotnik's medical lab. Her subject of thought was the comatose echidna lying on one of the operating tables.

"It's no use," Rouge lamented. "He's been dealt intense psychological damage. There's nothing here that can really cure him." Leaning over the table, Rouge sunk her head low, hovering slightly over Knuckles. "Come on, it can't be that bad, Knux. Why don't you just wake up? You know, I used to have a ninja sensei who taught me most of my thieving skills. She always said to me that there would come a time when I would have to think with my brain instead of my boobs. What do you think she meant by that?"

Knuckles was unresponsive as always.

She had to try harder. "Did you know that Tails has gotten farther with me than you have?"

Still nothing.

"Thought for sure that would wake you up," she muttered from the side of her lips. "Seriously, what's a girl supposed to do in these situations?"

"Maybe I can help," said a kind voice from the doorway.

Rouge kept her gun close to her side ready to pull on anyone who might show up, but something told her that she could leave it alone this time. She simply looked up and saw a human pink haired girl walking towards her.

"It looks like you're in need of medical attention. I'm Haruno Sakura, a skilled medic."

"Good luck. He's suffered serious psychological damage. Even the power of the chaos emeralds couldn't do anything."

"So they know about the chaos emeralds," Sakura noted as she approached Knuckles' body. When she got a closer look at Knuckles, her compassionate was almost completely replaced by a look of horror. "Whoa! What an ugly looking thing. Umm…what species is this?"

"What? He's an echidna. Can't you tell?" Rouge treated the question like it was crazy.

Sakura looked very confused. "Great. I don't even know what an echidna is. But that shouldn't matter," Sakura gently placed her hand on Knuckles forehead and awakened a steady flow of green chakra.

"Are you sure you're a medic?" Rouge asked, giving her a skeptical glance.

"I'm also skilled with genjutsu. You're friend's was put under the effects of a very powerful and deadly genjutsu. I'm trying to dispel it."

"Genjutsus, huh? It's been a long time since I've heard that word," Rouge hearkened back to her ninja training days when she was taught about how certain ninjas were skilled in using illusions, but those were mostly smokescreen tactics used to make quick escapes and to distract opponents. Espio knew a couple of those tricks. She never heard of anyone using them to crush a person's mind. If ninjas were behind this, they were unlike any ever seen on Mobius.

Sakura was equally puzzled with what she was learning. "Why are bats and echidnas together, anyway? These people are so strange, but I see why Neji sent me down here. I'm the only one who can help them," As Sakura continued to undo the effects on Knuckles, the identity of the genjutsu user's chakra entered her mind. "This was Orochimaru's technique. We'll have to move fast."

"You look worried there, Sakura. Anything I can do to help?" Rouge asked.

"Just don't let me get distracted," she said.

For her part, Rouge did keep a sharp eye out for trouble and reloaded her gun, but there was nothing she could prepare herself for when a bolt of yellow light shot through the lab bringing opening up a portal that dropped in some figures. Rouge right away recognized Shadow. Sakura saw Lee and Tenten follow.

"What in the world…?" Rouge and Sakura asked with gaped mouths.

Shadow didn't waste a second to even check the surroundings. He immediately tugged on Lee's collar and slugged him with another fist. Lee took the full brunt of the hit and tumbled onto the floor, unable to get up. Shadow, clearly out of breath staggered forward to deal more punishment. "That wasn't smart whatever you guys did to me," Shadow sneered. "Somehow your powers merged with mine to extend the reach of my chaos control, teleporting us all away," Shadow almost dropped to his knees. "It used up too much of my energy, but it looks like it drained you, too.

Lee dug one knee into the floor to balance himself up slowly. "The flower of youth is eternal! It does not run out of life!" he grunted, clearly having a hard time speaking. "It looks like we'll have to continue fighting, even though we're both powerless. The Beautiful Green Beast against the Ultimate Lifeform, both on their last legs…drained of chakra."

"I wish you would stop talking like that," Shadow sneered and advanced upon Lee.

"Come on, Lee. Don't let him turn you into a punching bag. He's weakened and he's lost his chaos emeralds," Tenten cheered, trying her best to replace Lee's energy with confidence.

Lee nodded Tenten's way and grasped Shadow's fists with his arms, preventing the hedgehog from moving forward.

"You can't hold me into standstill for long, fuzzboy. Maybe if you detached those eyebrows and used them as nunchakus, you'd stand a chance," Shadow goaded.

"Not a bad suggestion, my friend, but instead, I think I'll just…" Lee lowered his head and shoved it forward into Shadow, knocking him off his feet.

"A head butt?" Shadow asked, bewildered.

"I will use everything I have in order not to lose to you!" Lee proclaimed. "Especially now that I'm in front of Sakura-san!" he momentarily turned to Sakura and gave her the thumbs up along with his shiny smile. "You are the spring cherry blossoms that fuel my heart with undying passion!"

"Baka!" Sakura screamed. "Stop looking at me and saying those ridiculous things! You left that guy an opening!"

"Huh? I did?" Before Lee could react Shadow was once again on top of him, punching away, with Lee punching right back. The fight ceased to be any kind of ninja battle between two experts of hand to hand combat and was now no more than what looked like a street bawl between two thugs. Finally, Shadow mustered enough strength to teleport in one pistol and desperately whipped Lee in the face with it. That proved to be Lee's limit as Shadow saw the green beast collapse to the floor, half conscious.

"Shadow, what is this all about?" Rouge asked, bewildered. "Who are these people?"

"Isn't it obvious? They're the ones who want to take the chaos emeralds," Shadow noticed Sakura standing before Knuckles and he aimed the gun at her head.

"Now hold on, Shadow," Rouge said gently. "You clearly haven't thought this through."

"I've thought through everything. The way the eyebrow jerk looked at this pink haired girl, I'd say that their lovers. They obviously go together, I mean, they're both hideous."

Sakura felt every muscle in her body tense up.

"Look at his eyebrows and that girl's abnormally large forehead; they're clearly some sort of demonic couple."

"All right, buster…" With surprising speed, Sakura reached out and grasped hard onto Shadow's wrist, then gave it a violent twist. Shadow yelped in pain at the sound of a snap in his wrist.

"That was for pulling a gun on me," Sakura said, seething. She twisted Shadow's arm further until the gun fell from his fingers.

"This is for what you did to Lee," she went on and shoved a fist into Shadow's gut.

"So strong…" was all Shadow could think as he was forced to spew globs of blood and saliva. He needed every ounce of strength he had to stay balanced.

"And this is for my forehead!" Sakura finished and swung one uppercut into Shadow's jaw. This one sent the hedgehog flying across the lab where he crashed into the wall, into a shelf full of chemicals. Shadow tried to get up, but the shelf gave way and toppled on top of his back, glass vials shattered as they landed on his head. The ebony hedgehog let out one final groan as he tried to lift himself up. The room swam before his eyes with Sakura appearing like a wavering blob of red. He tried to crawl forward, but simply collapsed in a floundering heap.

"I won't say he didn't deserve that," Rouge said and shrugged her shoulders. "Still, to think you actually took him out. That takes a lot of strength. I feel a little bad for the guy in the green spandex, though. Shadow never reacted well to things that looked so…unique."

Sakura was still fuming, "What in idiot! Did you hear what he said? You couldn't possibly be more of wrong about anything!"

"Awwww, he wasn't that wrong Sakura. I mean, you did give him a nice punch just for me," Lee said with love struck eyes.

"Get up, Lee," Tenten called out to him and shook him as hard as she could. "We have to find out what happened to Neji."

"Ungh…huh?" Lee groaned, his eyes half opened. "Neji?"

"Don't you remember? He was caught in the chaos blast with us. He must have been sent elsewhere."

"Chaos Control," another bolt of light flooded the lab and revealed Hyuuga Neji with the purple and red emeralds in his hands.

"Neji!" Tenten jumped up and squealed happily. "You're all right and you got the chaos emeralds!"

"Using chaos control is quite similar to working with chakra in Jyuken. I was able to manipulate the energy and retrieve the emeralds, then use chaos control myself," he explained.

"Just as a thought," grumbled a voice from beneath damaged lab equipment that was followed by a black and red arm slowly clamoring out. "This new competition is trying to take over. "They want the power of chaos to increase their own powers." Shadow scattered all the junk aside and stepped up to face Neji. "That's not going to happen.

Neji didn't react at all. He simply smiled wryly at Shadow. "It would be so easy just to shut down all your tenketsus at this point, but that seems rather unnecessary now."

Shadow cocked an eyebrow when he noticed that Neji wasn't smiling or looking at him. Those calm white eyes seemed to be focus on something behind him. Shadow spun around to see who it was and that's when he saw Rouge holding him up at gunpoint.

The hedgehog scowled at the gun whose barrel was staring him in the face. "Get that out of my face, Rouge. What are you trying to pull?"

'You don't know when to quit, do you, Shadow?" Rouge chided him. "Sakura over there is here to help revive Knuckles. These guys here are her teammates. They're ninjas out to stop the real enemy behind this. And if you really want to protect the emeralds from whoever the bad guys are, you'll see that we're all gonna need to work together as a team."

"Fine," Shadow agreed grumpily. Then he saw Neji giving a far off look with those eyes. "What is with those eyes of yours? What are you seeing this time?"

"Snakes," Neji replied. "They're everywhere."

* * *

Tails pulled out his wrist watch sized computer he had on him and connected it into Robotnik's main computer to download all its information. "Perfect!" he yelled excitedly. "All the coordinates that tell how to get to the other world are here. The last time anybody from that world came here was back in Gerald Robotnik's time. It seems that he was contacted by a guy named Uchiha Madara and he participated in his earlier experiments. Uchiha…Sasuke had that name. It says that Uchiha Madara got here using the power of his eye. That's definitely the sharingan."

A close up picture of the Sharingan appeared onscreen. The red eye complete with three tomoes surrounding the pupil. Tails recognized that it was exactly what he saw on Sasuke. "It looks like they were interested in the different forms a sharingan can take. It says here that there's a heightened version called a 'Manga…Mango…something…Magek—"

"Mangekyou Sharingan," a voice corrected Tails from behind.

Tails shuddered at the voice which he heard only once before, yet could register its identity instantly. It was that same cold, uncaring voice he heard days before. The whole scene laid fresh in his mind. He craned his neck around slowly, knowing he really didn't want to.

"I would know. I almost obtained it."

"Sasuke?"

The Uchiha ninja nodded slightly. "To be honest, I expected to see you alive. I did say I'd kill you the next time. Do you remember that?"

"Yeah," Tails' mouth turned dry and his speech reflected that. "I do."

Sasuke's onyx eyes slowly phased into the sharingan from. He held his right hand up and gathered chakra n the form of electricity into his hand. The various currents of voltage all gathered together to form one globe of energy that crackled erratically. "It's just like the sound of a thousand birds. That's why it's called Chidori."

Tails stared into the white hot power of the Chidori in both awe and terror. Its churning blue lightning reflected off of the fox's sapphire eyes. "Why are you doing this?" was all he asked.

"I said before that I've seen those eyes of yours before. They are peaceful eyes that are brimming with dreams and ideals, held together with the bonds of friendship. A long time, I was tied with bonds like those, but my heart chose to break them, so that I may seek my revenge."

Tails didn't like where this was going. He pulled out the Desert Eagle that Shadow gave him and aimed it for Sasuke's exposed chest.

Sasuke didn't seem to care. He simply continued to talk. "That day when you stopped my killing stroke, I knew that there was something different about you. It's that kind of thing that could interfere with my vengeance."

Tails detected a shift in Sasuke's foot just as he finished his sentence. He was just about ready to strike. "You know, there's somebody who wants you dead," he cocked his gun, "And I'm starting to see why."

The light of the chidori was so intense, Tails squinted his eyes tightly, almost shutting them fully, and fired. Sasuke slid back to create enough distance and swerved out of the way of every shot. Leaving the bullets to rain harmlessly through empty air, Sasuke rushed towards the fox in a quick straight line, his blazing arm outstretched fully. Tails reopened his eyes widely and dropped his now empty gun. He wanted to back away and cower in fear, but he knew that was pointless. Instead, he bent his knees and spread his feet into a fighting stance, put up his dukes, and stared hard right into the avenger's crimson eyes and his screaming chidori. Sure, that was pointless too, but Tails felt that he had to at least go down strong. He even managed a small laugh.

"It's funny. I was always terrified of thunder and lightning. I guess I knew that's how I would die…No! I'm not dying here. Somehow, I'm going to survive. I have to…"

Tails felt the steady drumming of his heart beat louder as the chidori drew closer and he felt the world shrink away while the lightning storm came nearer. There was a faint smell of ozone in the air and Tails' fur started to stand on end. He continued to lock his eyes onto Sasuke even as the chidori was inches in front of his face. At the very last movement, Tails' felt his feet spring forward and he lunged in blind instinct straight for Sasuke.

And Sasuke stopped in his tracks. He wasn't sure what force held him back. He scanned his chidori arm and saw a powerful clawed, gloved fist holding his wrist in a vise. He tilted his head to the right and saw one seriously pissed off red echidna, his amethyst eyes glowing deeply in chidori's light.

"Hey. Remember me?" he asked softly.

Tails' eyes widened even further at this sudden turn. "Knuckles? You're all right?"

The echidna guardian smirked and decked Sasuke across the face with his other arm, forcing Sasuke to sail through the chamber and crash into the wall. His chidori faded away as he went unconscious.

"Does that answer your question?" Knuckles replied proudly, massaging his punching hand.

Tails turned away from the echidna to see Sasuke lying on the floor. "Wow! You got him." Tails felt like melting into a puddle of relief. Sasuke was beaten. And with one punch, too. It seemed impossible.

It was.

No sooner than Tails could blink, Sasuke's body disappeared in a puff of smoke. In his place was one of the deactivated robots, wrecked by Knuckles' fist.

"How did he do that?" Tails asked in astonishment.

"He's a tricky bastard," Knuckles said, then turned to Tails. "You all right? You look a little shaken up."

"I'm fine. I was lucky you came along."

"Oh believe me, I have been waiting to smack that clown around for some time now. Him and that…" Knuckles paused and seemed to freeze in place.

"Knux, is something wrong?" Tails asked worriedly.

"If that Sasuke guy is here, that must mean…oh no!"

Dr. Robotnik almost tripped over his own feet as his bulky frame lumbered forth from the elevator and onto the rooftop of his Egg fortress. Robotnik was never known for being graceful, but this time, he moved about like a drunken man. So much so that he could've walked right off the roof where he would've taken a 1000 foot drop to the earth. This highest summit served as the landing pad for his Egg Carrier and he was more than a little unnerved that it wasn't there yet.

The fact that he clutched in his hands the shining white chaos emerald agitated him to no end, and the fact that there was blood dripping from two puncture wounds on his neck made it worse. His red coat grew more stained every minute with his even redder blood flowing over it. "How could this have happened?" he breathed the words out heavily. "All those snakes…! Who could've orchestrated this?"

"I hope that airship comes for you soon."

"Who said that?" Robotnik spun around to see a figure standing on the edge of the rooftop, his back to Robotnik while his face was turned to the skyline.

"A storm is coming after all," the figure whispered, not necessarily talking to Robotnik.

Robotnik didn't need to be told that. He saw for himself that the night sky's half moon was being obscured by swiftly moving storm clouds, allowing only the faintest rays of orange to protrude from the blackness. He heard the distant rumbling of thunder and waves lightning firing through the clouds.

"Who are you?"

"A simple traveler who has merely stopped to view the scenery."

"View the scenery, huh? At a place like this?"

He turned around slowly to show the doctor his pale face. The flash of lightning brought a spectral glimmer to it. He stepped closer to Robotnik and gestured his arms towards the horizon as if presenting a fine painting. "I like this weather. I like how everything is moving. A nice day can be enjoyable, but there's so much more energy in a night like this. And I like things that can move. Like that chaos emerald you have there. I hear they're very good at making things move…very fast."

Robotnik pressed his hand on his neck wound to hold in the blood and backed away in terror. "It's you isn't it? The one who started all this? You—"

"Call me Orochimaru. And do show respect. Your life is in my hands," he chuckled and narrowed his pupils to cat slits that pierced into Robotnik's soul.

"What…what are you? You can't be human," Robotnik stepped back.

"Come now, Robotnik. I didn't think you'd cower so easily. It's not befitting a would be world dictator, is it?"

"Please, stay back," he pleaded.

"And now you beg for mercy. Tell me. Do gods need to beg? That is what you've always wanted to be right?"

Robotnik's tinted glasses slipped off of his sweaty nose, revealing soft gray eyes, shaking in their sockets in horror.

"World domination. What a childish ambition. For in the end, all things with a form will eventually perish. You are foolish to think that an army of machines would stand the test of eternity."

"How dare you mock my empire!" Robotnik spat in defiance. "You know nothing of my genius, my brilliant plots that have locked this planet in the grip of fear!"

"You've lost your grip," Orochimaru replied. "I've seen your plans. Perfect Chaos, Space Colony Ark, the Flames of Disaster…You've suffered defeat from your own hands. Honestly, in what world could a fat lard ball like you achieve conquest?"

"You're wrong!"

"That's why Metal Sonic betrayed you. He serves a real master now. Perhaps under my guidance, he will succeed in killing Sonic the Hedgehog. Heh. You never could beat the hedgehog, could you? I actually pity Sonic that his legend revolves around defeating you."

The roaring sound of Robotnik's Egg Carrier descending to the rooftop distracted Orochimaru and he glowered at the approaching airship. Robotnik mustered all his strength to lift his p his spindly legs and run to the airship as fast as he could.

Orochimaru smirked evilly. "Sennei Jashuu," (Hidden Snake Hands) three snakes emerged from his sleeves and slithered with lightning speed towards Robotnik. Two coiled around his neck and squeezed, forcing his blood to seep between the snakes' coils. Robotnik let out a pig like squeal when he felt the scaly snake wrap around him. The other snake unhinged its jaws and snagged the white emerald in its mouth. With a simple jerk of his arm, Orochimaru flung all 252 pounds of Robotnik's egg shaped body back towards him. "We have more to discuss, doctor."

Just when Robotnik thought he'd seen enough, a puff of smoke appeared before Orochimaru. His Uchiha apprentice emerged forth, his unusual eyes glaring at the fat doctor.

"Ah, Sasuke," Orochimaru greeted. "What's your status?"

"The Konoha nins are now in possession of two chaos emeralds, Orochimaru. The purple and the red one."

"Konoha, eh? We now have the yellow, the green, and the white. If Metal Sonic can successfully kill Sonic, he'll give us the blue ones. That means that we have just those remaining two. Our mission will be complete when we eliminate them all."

"Like Hell you will!" a roar came from the door behind, inviting Robotnik, Orochimaru, and Sasuke to glance back to see Knuckles the Echidna jumped out and landed before them baring his fists.

"I forgot to mention that the guardian has fully revived," Sasuke said casually.

"No matter," the sannin replied. "This should be interesting."

"Knuckles, is that Orochimaru?" Tails asked, finding difficulty in taking his eyes off the snake eyed man. His eyes yellow eyes gleamed with intelligence and terrible cunning.

"It's been awhile since I've seen another kitsune," Orochimaru said. "I never expected them to exist on this planet. The fact that you have such a high intelligence does not surprise me."

"Knux, are you sure we can take these guys on?"

"No. In fact, I'm pretty sure we can't," he said honestly. "But right now, we have to do what we can."

For a moment, the rooftop fell silent where nobody spoke, but merely glared at each other, assessing their strengths and weaknesses. The high altitude winds began to pick up and Orochimaru was the only one who smiled as the winds blew through his long, black hair. The quiet and stillness was finally broken by the slight ring of Sasuke's sword just beginning to unsheathe.

"I'll take the kitsune. You can have the echidna," Sasuke told his sannin master.

Orochimaru grinned sadistically. To tell him what to do like that, Sasuke was growing more brazen everyday. He answered by gently placing his hand on Sasuke's scabbard. "I have a better idea. We didn't come here to play such games. And we can't just forget about Robotnik, can we?"

Robotnik shuddered in fear when the snake lord turned his attention back towards him. "Your empire falls today, Doctor," the snakes released their grip and retreated back to his sleeves. Orochimaru then rolled up that sleeve, revealing an elaborate tattoo running the length of his arm.

"Tails, be ready for anything," Knuckles warned.

Orochimaru picked up the apprehension in Knuckles and it made him grin. "I'll tell you one thing, Guardian. You couldn't have come back at a better time, kukukukuku."

"So he's really going to do that," Sasuke realized. "It's not very often this happens. Even for Orochimaru to use this technique…is dangerous."

**"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"**

An enormous cloud of white vapor rushed in violently, covering the entire summit of the Egg fortress. Knuckles and Tails shielded their faces from the raging mists. When they cleared away, Robotnik and the two Mobians widened their eyes in abject terror at the sight of a colossal purple snake that wrapped its lengthy body around the tower, its head casting a shadow over everything, with Orochimaru and Sasuke crowned on top.

The snake's green eyes directed themselves upwards to see the summoner. "Hey, Orochimaru," the snake growled. "What sort of dump did you summon me to this time? There'd better be a good reason."

"It's simple Manda," Orochimaru replied. "I called you here because we're going to destroy this place."

"Bastard! What kind of hash have you been smoking that gave you this idea? Do you realize what kind of crap you're asking me to put in my mouth? And I despise heights. For bringing me forth to this place, I demand no less than 200 sacrifices as payment!"

The emergence of the Egg Carrier flying through the dispersed clouds brought relief to Robotnik's nerves. "It's about damn time," he barked. "Get me out of here, now." The airship lowered itself at its master's command to the rooftop and cranked the entrance doors open wide to let him in. Robotnik clambered on inside. The doors shut when he was safely inside and airship then blasted off.

Manda reared back his head, preparing to strike and tear apart the ship, but a negative hand signal from his summoner halted him. "Let us leave the good doctor alone, Manda. After all, with the bite placed on him, he won't last much longer. For now, I believe we have two friends below who have been dying to meet us."

"Kn-Knux! That snake…He's HUGE!" Tails stretched out both arms to emphasize how large it was. "What do we do?" He didn't hear a response, so he turned back to see Knuckles standing frozen like a statue in shock. His lower jaw was very far below the upper jaw.

Tails' sharp nose picked up the acrid stench of snake breath wavering through the air. Manda was staring down at the little fox wickedly, revealing his fangs. "You're small, but I think I'll enjoy eating you, brat."

"He wants to eat us," Knuckles said, snapping himself out of his fears, trying hard to act a leader, "But this isn't the time to panic, Tails!"

"You're the one who was frozen like a cherry popsicle," Tails thought, giving Knuckles a skeptical eye.

Knuckles ignored the look, more "We have to get ready to run…NOW!"

With unbelievable speed, the purple anaconda lashed out and tore into the top of the metallic fortress to shreds. Tails and Knuckles lost their ground and were left to plunge into the abyss. Knuckles used his dreadlocks to glide along the air.

"Knux, I can't fly anymore!" Tails cried out, flailing his arms.

"Relax, kid. I got ya," he swooped down to the falling fox and grabbed his arm. Fortunately, Tails was light enough so he didn't weigh Knuckles down too much.

"How insolent for them to think that they can fly away! Ninpou Dokukiri!" (Poison Mist) In his anger, Manda hissed out a stream of thick purple gas their way.

Tails wrapped his right tail around his mouth to protect himself from breathing in the noxious fumes, but Knuckles was left wide open and he inhaled a big gulp of gas that left him woozy. "Ungh…I can't move anymore. Hang on, Tails," he croaked. Desperately, Knuckles dug his claws into the metal sides of the tower, hanging Tails and himself precariously a thousand feet above ground.

"Knuckles…"

Knuckles coughed. "Don't worry, Tails. The gas was poisonous, but he didn't use a fatal dose. That snake wants to eat us alive."

"Speaking of which, where'd he go?"

Knuckles look around carefully. The air was eerily quiet with no sign of the snake monster. "He was just above us right? Geez, how can something that big hide from us?"

The answer came with a powerful rumbling of the tower, and then the outer wall shattered with Manda's head poking out from within. Knuckles and Tails were left flailing helplessly into the air. "Bastards! It's time to feast on your flesh!" He opened his mouth wide, revealing his pink, fleshy maw and snapped his jaws shut on Tails.

"Tails!" Knuckles cried. The echidna missed being eaten by mere inches and ended up sliding alongside Manda's smooth scaly hide. He knew that staying on the snake's back was a real disadvantage. Setting his eyes back on the Egg Fortress's rooftop, he calculated the jump and went for it, just barely hanging on to the edge. "Spit him out, you damned viper!" he shook his fist at the snake.

"That's one down," the snake hissed. "Soon you'll be next. If it makes you feel better, kitsunes are always tasty."

"What are you waiting for, Manda?" Orochimaru asked. "Eat him!"

"Wait," Manda growled and jerked his head from side to side. "There's something in my eye."

"So what?"

"What do you mean 'so what?' It's irritating!" he snarled. "It feels like something is taking a bite out of my chakra."

"I know what that is…," Orochimaru said, getting more amused. He breathed a swirling line of fire over Manda's eyes, causing a swarm of bugs to scatter. "It's time for you come out," Orochimaru continued to spread his fire breath over the area, blasting away clouds of debris left by Manda. In the glowing light of the flames, he revealed three figures. Two ninjas and a dog.

"They found us, Shino!" Kiba cried.

Shino did not answer Kiba, but started at the giant snake sternly. "Beware, Kiba. This is the first time we've ever seen Orochimaru. Most likely we'll have to run away."

"Yeah, but not until that snake bastard spits out the fox!" Kiba roared.

Manda didn't take kindly to that insult. "Do you know these insects, Orochimaru?"

"I recognize them from the Chuunin Exam. They are from Sasuke's graduating class. Isn't that right, Sasuke?"

"Yes. That's them," Sasuke affirmed, not giving any interest even though, he had not seen either ninja in years.

Kiba gasped when he recognized who was standing on top of the snake next to Orochimaru. "Damn it, Sasuke! We had our mission to bring you back, so get the hell of that stupid snake and come here!"

"You're in no position to tell me that, Kiba."

"Ha! You think a stupid snake like that is gonna scare us? Come on, Akamaru! We'll use our Garouga on them. It's a big target, so we won't miss!"

"Hahahahaha!" Manda laughed, his eyes glowing a hint of malice. "Are you really talking about me, kid? I'll destroy you so fast—AAARGH!"

"Take that!" a shrill voice shouted, coming from inside the snake's mouth. When Manda opened his jaws wider, he saw Tails lying on top of the his tongue, stabbing it with a sharp piece of shrapnel. The wound was small, but was enough to irritate him.

"Impudent little brat! I'll pulverize you first, then!" Manda flicked Tails out off his mouth into the open air. He followed through by swinging his head at the kit. Tails gasped, breathless as the anaconda tail struck him with such incredible force that it knocked him out and sent him flying off the roof.

Shino shot forth a chain of bugs over the edge and used them to grab Hold of Tails. "I have him," he said. "This place is too dangerous for him. I'll have my bugs bring him safely to the ground. Under Shino's command, the swarm of kikai bugs gathered around Tails' body and crawled down the smooth side of the tower, their legs easily sticking to the sides.

"Can we really trust those bugs with his life?" Knuckles shot Shino a confused look.

"Those bugs are a colony that lives inside me. They are a part of me and my life. Tails saved my life recently. Therefore, my bugs will protect him with their lives. Just as they will fearlessly attack any enemy." Having dismissed Knuckles' concerns, Shino blasted a cone of bugs towards the top pf the snake's head at Orochimaru and Sasuke

**"Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"** Sasuke responded by puffing his chest and breathing a blast of flame, incinerating every last bug and exploding into Shino, Kiba, Knuckles, and Akamaru.

When the smoke and flames wee carried away by the wind, Sasuke knew that he had won.

"These situations continue to grow more troublesome every time, Orochimaru," Manda grumbled. "Look at me! That's gonna develop into a nasty scar on my tongue. You're gonna pay big time, got it?"

"Perhaps a reward is in order right now, then," Orochimaru said slyly. "Here, see what this does for you," he then tossed the white emerald into the air and allowed Manda to swallow it.

For what may have been the first time since Orochimaru signed the snake contract, Manda gave words of praise in between his rumbling chuckles, "Heh heh heh. You've done well, Orochimaru. I can feel the flow of the power chaos even in just one emerald. I'm looking forward to see what happens with the acquisition of all seven," With the snake satisfied with his new prize, he slithered down the tower to begin his path of destruction.

* * *

"Neji!" Tenten cried. "You have to get back!"

Neji couldn't hear Tenten. He couldn't see her, either, for he wasn't in this world anymore. For Neji, all he could see, all that existed for him was the yin/yang sign that stood under him, shaded in a green aura against a vast empty blackness. Three circles, each one wider than the last surrounded his center. Inscribed along the circles were the various kanji that held the greater mysteries of the Hyuuga's Juken Gentle Fist Style. And they were his to control. He stepped into his stance, his left leg and arm inside the yang, and his right side in the yin, he began his attack.

**"Hakke Hyaku Niju Hachi Shou!" (Divine 128 Strikes)**

The way Neji moved, it was more of a dance than an attack. Neji opened his eyes and allowed his arms to gracefully swim through the air gently, but fast enough to strike and kill all the waves of poisonous snakes that slithered his way. Tenten realized that she had nothing to worry about. Neji crushed the heads of over 180 snakes in seconds. Complimented by Tenten's constant spraying of shuriken, and Lee's swift and youthful blows, Team Gai was an impenetrable force against Orochimaru's army of snake summons. That is, until something caught Neji's attention and forced him to drop his stance, leaving himself wide open to another attack of snakes that crawled through every wall and lunged his way.

Tenten pulled out one of her spiked bombs that detonated onto the remaining snakes. "Neji, why did you stop like that?" she asked.

"Hmph," Shadow muttered. "Seeing stuff again, huh? What is it this time?"

"That chakra. It's unreal," Neji pointed towards Robotnik's largest egg shaped tower that loomed before them.

"This is the direction Knuckles went," Rouge said. "It's Robotnik's command center. There must be something big going on up there."

As the team approached the base, Neji spotted something swiftly crawling down the tower walls. "That's it. Whatever's giving off that intense chakra, it's coming down this wall."

When it reached the bottom, the team saw that it was a little two tailed fox being carried by a group of bugs. The bugs, recognizing Shino's comrades, left the fox at their feet and crawled away to wait for a new sign from their host. Rouge gasped when she recognized that the beat up body was Tails. "Oh, Tails," she sighed sadly. "Not you, too."

Sakura kneeled down and ran her hand through the fox's orange fur. "Poor little guy," she said sympathetically. "Shino must have brought him here, but who would do such a horrible thing like this?"

"I shouldn't be surprised," muttered Shadow. "He must've been right in the middle of whatever caused all that loud smashing we heard earlier. The dumb fox never knew when to turn back."

"Shadow!" Rouge elbowed the ebony hedgehog. "Quit that. Can you help Tails, Sakura?"

Sakura gave Shadow a sour look. She hated him the second he pulled a gun on her and the recent time they've spent together made her hate him even more. "He took some heavy hits and broke a couple of bones, but it's not the end of the world. Thankfully, you guys have a simpler anatomy than us humans, so it won't be that hard to restore him."

"Wait a second. You mean to tell me that Tails has been setting off your little chakra sense? What a joke!" Sakura paid no attention to Shadow's rants and went about applying her medical jutsu to Tails.

"I think Shadow is right, Neji," Tenten agreed. "That cute little fox doesn't look like he has a lot of chakra."

"That's what we all said about Naruto…" Neji replied.

"Hey, Tails being a super powered juggernaut could be a good thing," Rouge suggested. "I'd like to see that.

"Quiet," Sakura shushed everyone. "He's getting up."

The once motionless fox sat up and stretched his arms out wide. He let out a big, healthy yawn, as if he just woke up from a long sleep. "Wow, I feel great," Tails said in a very relaxed voice. He turned to see Shadow and Sakura seated next to him, then looked to see Rouge and some new faces.

"Good to see your all better, Tails," Rouge said with a wink.

Tails scanned his body wildly. He noticed his bandages fell right off. "MY TAIL!" he yipped with delight, wagging it vigorously. "It couldn't move it all before." Losing all restraint Tails pounced on his own tail and hugged it tightly. "Oh, Shippo. I'm so sorry I had to put you through all that," he sobbed with a tear in his eye.

"You named your tail?" Shadow asked, his eyes fidgeting.

"Sure, it's a kitsune thing. If you have more than one tail, you have to give them names," Tails explained.

"More importantly, Tails," Rouge said. "You need to tell us what's happened to you. Did you see Knuckles?"

"Huh? Yeah. We both attacked by a big sake on the roof and…how did I get down here? Who are all these guys?"

"It seems that introductions are in order," Neji nodded slightly.

"Oooh! I'll start first!" Tails exclaimed, excited to go around and meet everybody. "I'm Miles "Tails" Prower, but my friends call me Tails."

"Then 'Tails' it is!" Lee shouted enthusiastically.

I'm Rouge the Bat, expert spy and jewel thief," Rouge said with a slight sexy tone. "That's Shadow over there. Don't expect him to talk much. Shadow just grunted Rouge's way.

"My name is Hyuuga Neji, genius ninja and taijutsu master of the Jyuken Style and Byakagun."

"Hi, I'm Tenten, throwing weapons expert," she waved.

"I'm Haruno Sakura, medic-nin and student of the Fifth Hokage.

Only one ninja was left and Shadow shuddered at the fact that he was about to speak. He could see that the guy already took in a deep breath and was prepared to let it all out.

"I am Rock Lee!" he leapt in the air and executed his Dynamic Entry. "The passionate and youthful Green Beast, incredible genius of hard work and successor to the Gouken Iron Fist jutsus under the super amazing Gai-sensei!"

Tails observed that the one thing they all had in common was the forehead protectors that they wore, (not necessarily on their foreheads) sporting a spiral symbol with an arrow.

"We are the ninja from Konohagakure no sato, The Hidden Leaf Village," Lee continued. "I am also known to be a natural user of the Suiken Drunken Fist style—

"Lee, that's enough," Tenten held her hand to his face. "By the way, just for you guys to know, there's still more of us."

"You mean Kiba and Shino, right?" Tails asked. "I ran into them earlier. They're cool!"

"We believe that they're on top of that tower. It would be best if we could get there as quickly as possible," Neji said. "Shadow, if we can use your expanded circle of chaos control to teleport us, we can get there instantly. Can you do that?"

"I'd rather leave you all behind," Shadow snorted. "But even I'm not sure if I can beat Orochimaru alone."

"So you'll do it?"

"Yeah, I'll take all of you," Shadow raised a finger to single out one of them. "Except Lee."

"What? Why me?" Lee's voice thundered.

"Just kidding," Shadow added, receiving glowers from everyone. "Whatever," he shrugged. As soon as he used chaos control on them, he knew they'd give him some respect.

* * *

The rooftop of the Egg Fortress was deathly quiet. Orochimaru left with Manda to the lower sectors of the city, leaving Sasuke alone on the rooftop. Despite the fact that Sasuke was looking his way with his sharingan and walking closer, Kiba smiled.

"The wind feels good. It's so cool," Kiba smiled as he laid on his back and let the chill winds sweep over him, bringing comfort to the blisters that raged over his face and blowing away the smoke that rose from his leather jacket. His smile turned to a frown when he turned to see that he was the only of his companions that was awake. The red guy was out lying on top of Akamaru, who was also unconscious. "Akamaru must have thrown himself behind the guy to keep him from falling. Good dog. And Shino…"

Kiba was shocked when he saw Shino lying face down on the hard floor, his hood completely covering his face. Kiba had never seen Shino down for the count like that. He waited to see him disperse into another bug clone but something told him that wasn't happening. Fire was after all, one of the kikai bugs greatest weaknesses. Worse yet, he saw Shino's signature sunglasses lying next to him. Kiba reached out to take them, but someone's foot came down gently and crushed them with a nasty crunching sound.

Scattering away black shards, Sasuke set the point of his katana against Kiba's neck. "How pitiful, Kiba. Back in the day, before we became genin, before I met Lee or Neji, and before Naruto proved to be strong, I thought it would be you who would be my rival, the only guy that had a chance of beating me. Even though I didn't like the idea of a three man genin team, I hoped that I would be team up with you. I admired your toughness, but now…"

"We can't all sell out for a bunch of cheap jutsus and funky tattoos," Kiba spat back. "I'm a member of a pack, remember? There's no way I could betray them."

"And I was alone. I imagine that made my choice a lot easier," he returned coolly.

"No you weren't. You experienced suffering and loss. There's a difference," Kiba slid his body back slightly to get away from the sword's point

"What do you know?"

Kiba mustered the strength to stand. He didn't do it to fight, but to put more weight into his words "I know that the same thing happens…happened to a lot of people and they don't transform into some wankering ball of angst. I'll bet there's nobody on this planet who acts like that."

A vivid flash of bright yellow light flashed against the dark sky. A team of seven people stepped out of the light. Kiba recognized most of them, but he was surprised to see one in particular.

"Tails!" he shouted gleefully. "You survived."

"Yeah!" he shouted and waved back. "I heard it was all thanks to Shino's bugs and…" Tails' excitement disappeared when he saw who was holding a sword to Kiba.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked hoarsely.

"I didn't think I'd see you here, Sakura," Sasuke said so casually that it hurt Sakura so much more than any insult she'd ever taken.

Sakura clenched her gloved fists to remove the pain. How long has it been since she last saw Sasuke back at Orochimaru's lair. It didn't really matter. This was the second time she had seen him after two and a half years. The shock from their first meeting was still as strong as ever.

Her passion never died.

His serenity never wavered.

"I knew I was going to find Sasuke eventually. It was part of the mission. So why am I so confused? I don't know what to do. Should I go and punch him out, talk to him? I—"A hand placed on Sakura's shoulder tore her from her dizzying thoughts.

It was Neji. "I can see that you're shaken up, Sakura. It's important now that you don't pay any attention to him this time. That will only make things worse. Right now, the best thing you can do is to take care of Kiba and the others. The rest of us will worry about Sasuke. Do you understand me?"

"Y-yes," she nodded and watched as Team Gai advanced upon Sasuke while Tails and Rouge pulled Knuckles and the others out of the way.

"Sakura," Tails called out. "Shino's hurt pretty bad. He could use your help."

"Uungh," Shino awoke with a groan, something she was so not used to seeing from the Aburame.

"Shino, I need to take off your coat so I can get a better look," Sakura instructed while pulling off his hood and unbuttoning the top of his coat. When she reached the buttons below his collar, she froze in shock, her face flushed red. "Shino! Oh my God, you're hot!"

Shino's eyes, normally hidden behind his sunglasses, revealed themselves as a deep, dark brown set in a finely chiseled face. "I know. I showed Hinata my face once. She fainted and forgot about Naruto for at least a week."

A powerful gust of wind rushed over the area, interrupting any further conversations, scattering the very clouds. Under the light of the half moon, Manda, the giant Anaconda returned and loomed over the ninjas and Mobians, with Orochimaru perched on its head.

Orochimaru briefly head counted everyone he saw before him. "So there's ten of you altogether, all still alive. Don't expect that to last very long, though."

"Orochimaru. I sense the other chaos emeralds."

"Yes, I see," Orochimaru said thoughtfully. "The black hedgehog with the red streaks has them."

"Shadow, that's Orochimaru," Tails helpfully explained, pointing to the snake sannin.

"I know who that is," Shadow hissed impatiently.

Orochimaru formed a devious smile when he saw Shadow and he made no effort to conceal his elongated tongue that smacked his lips. "Shadow-kun," he said, amused at the kind of reaction he would get by addressing him like that. "My name is Orochimaru, the Snake Sannin, and Leader of the Hidden Village of Sound. I have journeyed across worlds to seek the chaos emeralds. Along the way, I have learnt that you share a powerful bond with these gems. Is this true?"

"It is," Shadow replied gruffly.

"I know about you, Shadow-kun. You didn't come here to save the world like that kitsune and the echidna. You want something else, isn't that right? Perhaps I can give you that which you seek."

"I don't think you can trust him, Orochimaru. He'll just get in the way," Sasuke said.

Orochimaru raised an eye ridge curiously. Offering his opinion was something Sasuke did very rarely. Even talking about something other than his revenge was a rarity. He had to know what brought that up.

"You're right, Sasuke. This so called 'Ultimate Lifeform' is very unstable. We'll have to find out more. Sasuke, I want you to kill him."

Sasuke closed his eyes in contempt. "I don't have any interest in fighting that hedgehog."

"Do it," he insisted. "It will be a good exercise to prepare you for when you face Itachi. That alone is reason enough.

Sasuke nodded his head in agreement. Sasuke always disliked Orochimaru, but he was never wrong when it came to help in killing his brother.

"It seems we all want the prize of the last chaos emeralds," Orochimaru addressed everyone. "Most of us are shinobi. We will settle this with a battle in that style. Shadow will defend his chaos emeralds against my apprentice, Sasuke."

"What nonsense is this, Orochimaru?" Manda bellowed grumpily. "I thought you were tired of playing games. Just let me eat them and be done with it."

"Not yet. There's something I want to see."

"WHOOO! Shadow! Bust a cap in that creep's ass!" Rouge cheered, earning a nasty look from Sakura.

"Can he really win?" Tenten asked doubtfully. "I mean, he was totally plowed by Sakura."

"I was surprised!" Shadow snapped back quickly. "Besides, I'm back to full power now.

"Never mind that. Fight gracefully with youth and vigor," Lee said. "You will win." Shadow found it odd that the green ninja had so quickly dissolved all the animosity between them. He felt that was a stupid attitude.

"Everybody just stand back. This will all be over in a couple of minutes," he told them, not looking back. Only Sasuke was in his sights.

Neither of the two of them exchanged words between each other. They had nothing to discuss. Their chakra did the talking.

Haunted immortal red eyes met Spinning red eyes of vengeance.

"CHAOS SPEAR!" A bolt of energy streaked from his hand and sizzled through the air straight for Sasuke. Without flinching, he swung his sword to intercept the blast. The spear struck the sword, causing the chaos energy to split and fork off in other directions.

"That's no ordinary sword," Shadow wanted to get a better look at that black katana in the ninja's hand, but Sasuke left to time for that as sprang forward, ready to stab. Shadow kept his eyes locked on the sword and almost missed the three kunai that flung from Sasuke's free hand. Shadow leapt over the knives. Sasuke knew they would miss, but they were the distraction he needed. He lashed out at the hedgehog with the sword. Shadow saw that he was right in the path to be impaled as the sword rose up to pierce his white chest. The hedgehog maneuvered unexpectedly by clasping both hands on the sword and pushed it back, knocking the hilt into Sasuke's face. Sasuke tumble to the ground, spitting the blood out of his mouth.

Shadow raised the palm of his hands. They ran red with the flow of blood, but it didn't bother him. First blood was still his. He brought in a machine gun to make sure he would get in last blood, too.

Sasuke got on his feet and eyed the blood that dripped cleanly off his sword. Neither he nor Orochimaru were sure just how tough the Ultimate Lifeform's skin was supposed to be. Now they knew.

"I said this would be over real soon," Shadow repeated and released a barrage of bullets towards the Uchiha. Sasuke somersaulted out of the way while a path of bullets followed him closely , ringing loudly as they bounced off the ground.

"Not even a Kage can dodge bullets from a machine gun for very long. I'll have to play this his way."

Shadow smirked as he detected a hint of nervousness in his enemy's eyes and fired again mercilessly. This time, Sasuke didn't run. He stood calmly, watching the bullets sail through the air. Only at the last second did he vanish in a flash of light.

"It can't be…" Shadow gaped as that same light erupted behind him, accompanied by the silvery flash of a sword. He had only enough time to shove his in the sword's path. The katana proved strong enough to rip through the gun's metal, continuing its path to decapitate Shadow. The hedgehog swung his head back, leaving the blade to slide against the side of his throat. Shadow skidded back, instinctively holding a hand to his neck, pressing against the blood flow that bubbled through his fingers. He was more surprised by the way that Sasuke got so close than the attack itself. "He chaos controlled! Why does everyone all of sudden know how to do that?"

"This isn't looking good for Shadow," Sakura commented from the side. "Sasuke managed to cut open his carotid artery on his neck. He's losing blood fast."

With one hand pressed against his neck, Shadow used his other hand to hold pistol, a two handed gun, being too much to handle right now. Again, Sasuke teleported adjacent to Shadow and slashed at him. The hedgehog backed off and parried the sword using his gun. Sasuke lifted the katana up and swung it downward in one blinding motion to slice Shadow in half. The hedgehog held up his gun to block it, causing a shower of yellow sparks on impact. Sasuke looked down on his foe and saw a thin aura of chaos energy surrounded him.

"So, you've found out that no material can block the cutting power of the Kusunagi sword. You improvised by protecting your gun with a layer of your chaos energy," Sasuke observed. "That's very clever, but it's chakra just like anything else. That just means that I'll apply more of my own chakra into my sword. " Shadow was forced to look away as the sword crackled a bright, electric blue right in front of him. The katana swung down again and slashed into his shoulder in a diagonal arc. Only by using his own chaos control was Shadow able to escape and avid having his upper body torn in half.

"Just as I suspected," Orochimaru said atop the snake. "The two of them share similar skill levels. In the end, this fight will be decided by who is better at using chaos control."

Shadow closed his eyes to concentrate, to block out the pain. Nobody ever guessed that really using chaos energy was an intense mental discipline. He needed to time his attacks and pinpoint both his and Sasuke's positions in space precisely. Fortunately, Sasuke was clever, but still inexperienced in its use. If he could just get rid of that pesky sword, Shadow would have the winning edge.

Out of the corner of his eye, Shadow saw Sasuke leap for him, swinging the Sword of Kusunagi. Shadow whirled out of the way. As he suspected, Sasuke teleported away and returned facing the hedgehog's blind spot. Shadow smirked and teleported, reappearing under Sasuke and grabbing his legs, then hurling him to the ground.

That was one thing Shadow could also count on. He was smaller, but still had superior strength and speed. Seeing Sasuke get up in a daze, threw himself at the Uchiha, punching and kicking at him mercilessly, being extra careful not to let only blow be wasted, not to let Sasuke get any time to recover. It was a frightening sight for everybody to behold. The Konoha team watched as their old classmate got pummeled by Shadow's blood soaked fists. Sakura was especially shaken.

Still with the sword in hand, Sasuke kicked Shadow away to get some distance between them, then swung his sword in a vicious arc, forcing Shadow to do something or risk being bisected. Shadow patiently allowed the sword to come down and he simply clapped his hands. The sword became trapped in between.

"Maybe you should do us all a favor," Shadow said, smiling at Sasuke who was clearly frustrated. "Take your damn sword and commit Seppuku. We'll all be better off." Seeing that Sasuke continued to resist against his grip, Shadow twisted his arms around, causing the Sword of Kusunagi to fling out of Sasuke's hands and clatter on to the ground.

Chasing after his sword would give him an opening, so Sasuke let left it alone and got into a taijutsu stance. Shadow watched him curiously. It looked familiar to him. He tried to analyze Sasuke's movements and fight at the same time when the Uchiha ran towards him and flew into the air, coming down with a pinning kick. Shadow turned and backed up, then sprung forward like a cat. He maneuvered in between blows as if he knew where they would land, and jabbed Sasuke in the chest. The hedgehog followed through by delivering a kick with his thick metallic shoe into Sasuke's jaw, rocketing him into the air.

Sasuke saw that Shadow vanished through chaos control, only to return above him. As the hedgehog grabbed him in midair, he reached forward to speak into Sasuke's ear. "You're wondering how I could predict your movements so easily. I knew I saw them somewhere before. Then, I realized that you copied Fuzzy Brow's techniques. And the funny thing is," Shadow yelled out very loudly for everyone to hear, "I kicked his ass!" When his echo died down, and the two descended back to the floor, Shadow wrapped a hand around Sasuke's arm and twisted it violently until he heard a gut wrenching snap. Not yet satisfied, Shadow reared back his fist and punched him hard in the nose. The force of the punch alone broke Sasuke's nose and sent him spiraling to the ground where he landed with a hard thud. The chaos emeralds he possessed, the green and the yellow, fell out of Sasuke's pockets.

Not one to lie down for long, Sasuke tried to lift himself to his knees. Suddenly, he came face to face with Shadow and the barrel of a gun staring down at him. The hedgehog stood over Sasuke, feeling very relaxed. It took every ounce of concentration to beat him. He was bleeding badly and felt exhausted to the point of collapsing. The important thing was that he acquired some chaos emeralds. As long as Sasuke didn't have any emeralds, he couldn't use chaos control.

A wave of fear fell over Sasuke and grabbed hold of him. It was a feeling he hadn't felt in over two and a half years. It made his skin grow cold, causing his blood to fell even warmer. Never had he been beaten this bad since Itachi.

Itachi. Just the thought of the name overwhelmed him with rage. Sasuke couldn't allow himself to die like this. His goal, his revenge, everything that he gave his life for, the revenge he set his hear on would be gone. Itachi would live on unavenged.

"I know what you're thinking," Shadow said to him coolly. "I can sense your thoughts since we both have used the chaos emeralds. It forms a special type of telepathic bond. You've given your life away on some quest for revenge. And so it has brought you to this world. You should thank me. I'm going to end the chaos that you've given your life to and set you free."

"Sasuke-kun!" A kunai flashed and struck the hedgehog's hand, knocking the gun away.

"What the hell does that girl think she's doing?" Shadow grimaced when he saw Sakura with another kunai ready in her hand.

"I'm sorry, Shadow, but I can't let you kill him."

**To Be Continued in Chapter 8**

**The next chapter was actually going to be part of this chapter, but that would have made this one ridiculously huge! The good news is I already wrote parts of it, so it won't take as long to for another update.**

**Next up: The battle rages on as Sasuke activates the cursed seal! Tails and Kyubi meet again! How will this affect Naruto? Gaara arrives! See ya soon.**


	8. Broken Bonds and Shared Souls

**Time for a brand new update, eh? (Sees a crowd of skeletons covered in cobwebs.) Aw, it hasn't been that long. Those Naruto Shippuuden episodes are finally out, so yay for that! Anyways, I hope you have fun with the next part of this story, but first…**

**Responses to the Awesome Reviewers!**

TheShamanMaster: Thanks for pointing out the best lines. The part where Orochimaru freaked the hell out of Robotnik was my personal favorite part. Naruto is with Sonic and the rest of his team in Station Square. He will be appearing in this chapter.

Kayman: Thanks for the faves and I hear you that Tails is a fox. I guess he's a two-tailed mutant according to canon and stuff, but this is an AU, so Tails' story is a little different here.

Melody's last song: Shadow has been very means to Lee throughout this story so far. I imagined that's how they would interact. Shadow can be so insulting sometimes. It's good that Sakura is strong enough to teach him a lesson.

azngirlchibi: Thanks for liking the fight scenes. I try really hard with them. Gotta love bloody fight scenes…Hope you enjoy reading this chapter too.

Blue Mage Quartet: "Sannin" simply means "three people." In Naruto, it is a title for the legendary three ninjas Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya who were all students of the Third Hokage. I love Manda even though he only appeared in one episode. His personality is so much fun to write. "Just One Moment" is going great. I am very eager for the next chapter of your awfully depressing story! (That's good.) It's up to you whether Tails should die or not in your story. It will be very sad if he dies, but then it is labeled tragedy.

Lycropath: Since "Shippo" is just Japanese for "tail" it fits in really well for Tails to use that name. Thinking about the Inuyasha character, I thought it was funny.

Jlargent: Heaven help them is right! And Gaara's not in a good mood, either

Zohaku: Interesting ideas. The Kyubi is definitely looking to get out. Sasuke might turn good later on, but a lot will happen before then.

Dragon Man 180: Shadow agrees with you. It was very cheap of Sasuke to use chaos control. But one of the things their fight showed was that Shadow and Sonic are much better at using it than Sasuke. I also already planned for a Knuckles and Sakura slugfest. That's going to happen pretty soon.

Asher Tye: Neji was actually sensing Tails' chakra that was starting to grow as the Kyubi is beginning to give his power to Tails. More on that in this chapter. And we'll also see what's happening with Sonic and Naruto.

Angelus-alvus: Thank you very much. I'm very flattered. Hope you like the next chapters too!

Damo and his Alter Ego: Good to have you back! Computer problems can be a real pain, I know. Not as bad as slavery, but still pretty bad.

Silver Horror: Yeah! Gaara is coming! WOOT!

Mya the hedgie and Victoria: Heh heh. Shadow is so mean to everyone. Especially poor Sakura and Lee. Glad you found that line funny!

Forse the deathmaster: Thanks a lot for your extremely motivating comments! Gaara and Sasuke are indeed here to rock this chapter. I especially had fun bringing Gaara in! Hope you like it, too!

captain deoxys: OK! So what I was thinking of doing was completely rewriting mystic genesis to include this whole crazy plot where Mephiles and Black Doom will be the main characters who will fight Tails. I don't yet have any plans to work them into this story, so I will save them for their own fic. I will begin working on that when I get a little further into this story.

Apple Panda-chan: Regarding the couples, ShikaTema is here as you can see. ShadAmy is a definite possibility. I'm just thinking up original ways for them to get together. As for SasuSaku, that's not impossible at all. I actually really like that one, so that could work for sure.

Katie: Don't feel embarrassed. I think there are a lot of people that want Sasuke to die. Still, when reading the part in the manga where Sakura and Sasuke meet again, I think that she still has strong feelings for him.

Chiaki Uchiha: Thanks! I'm really happy you liked it.

Soul Teller: I saw that Dark Super Sonic on you tube. It does remind me a lot of the Sasuke's cursed seal.

Tim Swanson AKA Quake: I'm giving this couple serious consideration. Stay tuned to see what happens.

Rikku92: That's great you got a screenname. Have fun with all that. And sorry if this update took too long. I will try to write even faster in the future.

TC chan: Hmmm. A fight between Big with the sharingan and Chouji…That would be an interesting battle. I have no idea who would win. I guess it depends on whose best on throwing their weight around. Maybe I'll add the cat into the story later and we'll find out. Hope that net returns to you, too.

Did I get everybody? Great! Let's do this then!

**Chapter VIII: Broken Bonds and Shared Souls**

His life is a story of tragedies.

It created him and I'm afraid that it will end him.

He can't escape it.

Starting on the night when Uchiha Sasuke found the bodies of his parents and entire clan lying in pools of their own blood.

Sent from this world without reason by one of his own.

Kakashi told me that it was on that night that Sasuke was placed under the spell cast by Itachis' newly acquired Mangekyou Sharingan.

Maybe that's where the Sasuke that stands before me was born.

He's a shinobi just like me. We were on the same team and he's probably one of the best ninjas in our generation.

We were always taught that shinobi are supposed to protect those important to them. But Sasuke…

He lost that drive to protect long ago. Now he lives solely to avenge.

Maybe Shadow's right. Sasuke's so cold, so given up to chaos, maybe I should leave him to die.

That sounds like a good idea, for about half a second.

Uchiha Sasuke. A missing nin who defected from Konoha two and a half years ago to serve the Orochimaru, the Snake Sannin was finally sighted again on the faraway world of Mobius. To continue his insane quest for revenge against his brother Itachi, the one who single handedly slew the entire Uchiha clan, Sasuke came here to collect the seven mystical emeralds. Orochimaru claims to know the secret to unlocking their infinite powers. Their trail led them here, to the technological base of the mad scientist, Dr. Ivo Robotnik. There, they challenged those who possessed the emeralds, including Sonic the Hedgehog, the famed hero of Mobius, his best friend Tails, Knuckles the Guardian of the Master Emerald. It was finally Shadow the Hedgehog, the Ultimate Lifeform that caught Orochimaru's eye. To understand his powers, Sasuke dueled against the black hedgehog in a climactic battle, resulting in Sasuke finally beaten, his arm nearly torn off and near death. Haruno Sakura who in spite of Sasuke's continuing descent into the darkest evils, still refused to give up on him and stopped Shadow to spare her old teammate's life.

"Sakura," he said softly, as if he felt no pain at all. "What are you thinking about?"

That familiar voice alone was enough to drag Sakura out of her thoughts, to look up and face he who spoke her name.

"Sasuke-kun. You're hurt. Let me take care of that arm for you."

"Does it look like I need your help? I have my own ways now," Sasuke turned away from Sakura and her offers of help and opened himself up to the power of the cursed seal. Starting from the back of his neck that held the mark of Heaven, the dark chakra came alive and crawled over his skin like twisting black flames, igniting a deep violet chakra that surrounded him.

"Yes. You need my help now more than ever," Sakura sad sadly, clenching her gloved fists. Sasuke was the only boy she could never bring herself to punch. It looked like she was the only boy she would need to punch with all her strength.

Sasuke noticed how her fists quivered in hesitation. He looked down into her widened turquoise eyes, welled up with tears of compassion. "Why do you always go so far for me?" he turned away, breaking eye contact. "Can't you see that no matter how far either you or Naruto go, I will always be beyond your reach?"

She could think of only one answer, "If you had the chance to save your clan from Itachi, how far would you go?"

Sasuke was speechless. Throughout this whole time, he never asked himself that question.

"You were the one who taught me what loneliness is. If you died and I lost you, I will understand as just as you do, what it's like to lose everyone."

"You've already lost me," Sasuke told her in a low, cold voice. "Shadow was right. I've completely given my life away."

Shadow perked his ears up at the mention of his name and ignored the open wound in his neck. He studied Sakura and Shadow and entertained the thought of killing them both. Sasuke wasn't paying any attention to him. He could just lob a lethal chaos blast at the both of them. Let Sakura die in his arms. That seemed to be the way she would want to go. He considered the option, but after taking a quick look back at his team, he rejected it.

"Those markings," Tails said, slowly stepping closer for a better look. "That must be the cursed seal Sasuke mentioned to me before. He's going to activate his true power. His intent...he's gonna kill Sakura!"

Sakura was too teary eyed to notice, but Sasuke's hand was moving, forming seal that was partially hidden underneath his long sleeves.

"Looks like I'm all alone with Sasuke. Everyone else is being held back by Manda threatening to kill them, except Tails looks like he's trying to get closer. That feeling I'm getting from him. I know I've felt it before. Neji said something about Tails possessing an enormous chakra level.

Tails felt a hard tug on his arm pulling him back. "What do you think you're doing, Tails?" Knuckles demanded through gritted teeth. "This is not your fight."

"I don't care whose fight it is! Sauske's gonna kill both Sakura and Shadow. I've got to do something."

"What? Like get killed yourself?"

"Just…back off, all right?" Tails shoved Knuckles aside and headed over towards Sakura and Sasuke. He saw the chaos emeralds that Shadow dropped. Maybe he could use them to beat Sasuke. The closer he tried to get, the more he felt something push against him. The cool night air started to grow warmer with the presence of a fiery red haze. In a burning flash of light in his eyes, Tails saw that everyone was nowhere in sight. He now stood alone in the dank prison he visited not too long ago.

Knuckles was still bothered by Tails' sudden outburst. "That was very weird of him. I wonder what the heck is going on in Tails' head?"

"**Good to see you again, kit," **the demon's ruby eyes and ivory teeth gleamed in the darkness. **"There is much for us to discuss."**

"Kyuubi!" Tails shouted, visibly shocked. "In all the excitement I almost forgot about you!"

"**You need not worry about that again,"** he laughed. **"Now that my host has moved to this world, I can gain stronger access into your mind."**

"But why did you show up now all of a sudden?"

"**I can't simply bestow my chakra upon you just yet. It was only through your heightened emotions that I was able to make contact and bring us together."**

"So you mean the more intense my emotions are the more of your chakra I channel?"

"**Yes. That's how it works. Your heart is like a floodgate that can be opened, releasing all my power, but you have to desire it. This is the perfect moment to do just that, Tails. We will show them our true power."**

"Wait. I can't take your power," Tails' voice started to trail off. He didn't know what he was supposed to say to this fox. "I don't want to accept the powers of a demon that exists only to destroy."

His grin grew wider. **"Destruction? Is that all you think I am? My purposes are far grander than just mindless destruction. In truth, I want only what you want."**

"How do you know what I want?" Tails asked. Not at all expecting the answer he was about to get.

"**Miles Prower is your real name, isn't it? Is that supposed to be some play on 'miles per hour?' That's a sign to prevent vehicles from going too fast. It represents limitations. I understand you hate that name, don't you?"**

"Yes," Tails said in a voice almost as low as a whisper.

"**You have the ability to release my seal. Do this and all my power will be yours! No limits. No weaknesses. You will not know of these ever again. The name Miles Prower will be erased from your very being. All that stands in our way is that Uchiha. His chakra is even more sinister than my own. When last we met, he could actually suppress my infinite chakra. But together, we can overcome that cursed sharingan. Slay him and I'll give you everything."**

What Tails didn't know was that time flowed much more slowly inside the Kyuubi's metaphysical space. Only seconds passed outside and Sakura continued to plead with Sasuke.

"What Shadow said was true," Sasuke repeated. "I have become a being of pure chaos. That's why I could never go back."

"I don't care what Shadow says," Sakura dismissed that thought with a swipe of her hand. "Not everybody thinks that way. Naruto wouldn't think like that. That's why he came here—"

Sasuke dropped his icy demeanor. "Naruto's here? Where is he?"

"I- I don't know," Sakura replied truthfully.

"Never mind," Sasuke said, his dark sharingan glare staring off into the distance. "I can find him."

* * *

Sonic felt the urge to tap his foot. He felt the urge whenever he was bored with standing in one place and waiting. This time was much worse because he couldn't even move his feet that were attached to nothing but a shadow. All he could move were his eyes, and thankfully, his mouth.

"Could you turn down your shadow freezing jutsu thing for a just a second? I need to pick my nose."

"Baka," Shikamaru, the wielder of the Kagemane jutsu that held the hedgehog in place, grumbled. "I'm not going to listen to anything that stupid."

"Okay. How about this," Sonic prodded. "Your pick your own nose and I'll automatically do the same thing. That's how it works, right?"

"Such a troublesome hedgehog. Maybe I should just stab him with a shadow tendril or something. Nah. That would just get me into more of trouble."

As much as Sonic enjoyed grinning at Shikamaru's frustrated face, his emerald eyes weren't directed at him, but at the sky. The moon glowed brightly, being the only true light source for those shadows. It was the swiftly moving clouds that drifted across the night sky that really caught Sonic's attention. He was sure that if they would block the moonlight, Shikamaru's shadow would surely disappear.

"Psst. Sonic," he heard a faint, yet energetic whisper. Sonic glanced to see Amy tiptoeing behind Shikamaru. Her hammer was raised, poised to give the shadow ninja a good bashing over the head. She sent a quick nod Sonic's way to tell him that he would be free in just a second.

Sonic grimaced. He tried to think of some way to explain to Amy that this was a bad idea. He wanted to wave his hand or give her some kind of signal that striking Shikamaru meant that he would feel the hammer's blow, too.

Amy, however, was so eager to help her Sonic that there was no way he could communicate that to her. Her hammer was already on the way down, ready to clobber the back of Shikamaru's head.

Suddenly, the red and yellow piki piko hammer slammed into something with a hard, metallic clang. Out of nowhere, Temari threw her fan in between Shikamaru and Amy. Temari made a tsk tsk tsk motion sternly with her index finger at Amy. "You do not bop Shikamaru on the head like that. Big no no," She grabbed Shikamaru's head and craned it around to face her. "And you are a real lunkhead if you couldn't see that coming from behind you."

"Geez," Shikamaru released his most contemptful groan of the day. "There are so many troublesome things going on here that I can't concentrate. I'll need to wrap this up right now."

"Don't worry about this, Ames," Sonic assured Amy. "I'll deal with these guys and then you can do something about their awful hairdos."

"Hey! Don't start acting like I'm making everything so troublesome for you. There are a lot more bothersome people who are looking for you and your very annoying emeralds. I just want these dangerous guys stopped before everything gets troublesome on a cosmic scale."

Sonic's playful grin faded. "How dangerous are we talking about?"

"Knowing how they work, they might've gotten to your friends already," Shikamaru said grimly. "They might even be dead."

"Don't underestimate them so easily," Sonic warned. "Tails is trickier than he looks, Knuckles is a complete juggernaut, and God help anyone who picks a fight with Shadow. Of course, they've needed my help before. Gotta admit though, it's not everyday somebody can just come along and freeze me in my tracks. A guy like you could be handy to have around. But seriously, if you ask me, you guys look better suited to star in some chick flick or something rather than ninja missions."

Shikamaru cocked an eyebrow. "Chick flicks?"

"Yeah, with you guys kissing all over the place, turning into naked girls…Doesn't sound very ninjaish to me."

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest, and glared hard at the blue hedgehog his newest technique. The one that saved Amy. "Hey! Don't go making fun of me just because you're the one who got a colossal nosebleed. You must be a bigger closet pervert than Ebisu!"

"That's the guy with the perverted jutsus," Amy realized. "Hey, Naruto, you idiot!" Up went Amy's hammer directly into Natuto's face, releasing a sudden stream of blood out of his nostrils and burying the upper half of his body in the sand.

"I thought maybe I would get a break form all this abuse if Sakura wasn't in my team," Naruto thought sadly, digging his head out of the sand. "I guess I was wrong."

Shikamaru groaned, "I don't have time for this. Temari, can you make her stop?"

"Feh," Temari scoffed. "I got in the way before because I didn't want you to get hurt, Shika-kun. I don't care what happens to Naruto. Maybe he does deserve it."

"Some teamwork," Shikamaru was then reminded of Chouji who was just sitting on the sands munching on a new bag of chips with Ino idling away next to him.

"Hey, Ino," Chouji said to the blonde kunoichi. "Doesn't that pink hedgehog look a lot like Sakura?"

"Yeah. Especially if you look at the throbbing veins in her forehead," Ino laughed.

When the dust settled, Hinata maneuvered in between Naruto and Amy and gently put a hand on her hammer. "I'm s-sorry for what happened, Amy-san. I'm sure Naruto-kun wasn't trying to offend you. He was just doing what he felt what was best."

"The nice white eyed girl is right, Amy," Sonic called out. "There's no use in beating up Naruto. These guys did save our butts."

"But Sonic," Amy protested. "Didn't you see that jutsu? I was naked! That's unacceptable!" Amy was both furious and confused. Earlier, dozens of naked Amy's were seen in public. She now knew that she was sexy enough to give Sonic a massive nosebleed, but the fact that someone else came and transformed into her was too weird for her to handle.

Sonic sighed. Originally, he planned to spend the whole day relaxing. "I never realized how violent Amy could really get. All these ninja guys are pretty hyper themselves. I hate to admit, but the only chilled out person here is this funny looking guy with the shadow powers. This Shikamaru guy is pretty smart from what I've seen so far. Even though he's only seen me for a short time, he must have figured out all my abilities and has made contingency plans for all of them. I need to go for some kind of weakness."

Sonic's eyes fell towards Chouji. All he knew about him was that he loved to eat, was strong, and was pretty laid back except on one occasion.

"Hey, fatso!" Sonic yelled. "I saw your move earlier. Rolling into a ball of doom like that. I can do similar things. Of course, I was wondering, what do you think are the advantages of trading in speed for a gigantic ass?"

Shikamaru shuddered in horror. "Oh…he did notjust say what I think he said! He did that on purpose!"

"What did he just say?" Chouji asked quietly, but anyone could tell that a lot of energy was building up inside him.

"Come on, Chouji. Don't overreact—"

"You wanna say that again, blue boy?" Chouji was still speaking calmly and quietly.

Sonic had him hook line and sinker. "I'm just saying that I like your style. Extra chunky!"

"Aaargh! Can't you tell what a chubby person looks like?"

"Chouji! No! If you attack him, I'll get mauled, too!" Shikamaru protested.

Chouji charged at Sonic like an angry bull. Sonic smiled at Shikamaru's face that was growing more nervous and sweaty by the second. "You'd better make a decision soon before Mr. Staypuff comes and flattens the both of us," Sonic commented snidely.

Shikamaru's face was absolutely flustered. "You really know how to make things suck, don't you?"

Chouji charged towards Sonic, his punching arm grew to double its size.

Shikamaru was now nervous as hell. But not because of Chouji.

"Chouji! Wait just a second!" Shikamaru screamed. "Look behind you, at the spot where you crushed Metal Sonic!"

Chouji screeched his rampage to a stop, cooled down and got out of his "I'm not fat! Just a little chubby! Hooray for chubby people!" mode and looked behind him. The place where he landed on top of Metal Sonic was now a small hole in the ground. The robot's body was nowhere in sight.

"Metal Sonic disappeared, Shikamaru. I thought we killed him."

"Yeah, we all thought that. About a hundred times. The important thing is, where did run off to?"

"And just what makes you think I'm leaving?" an ominous voice threatened. It came from the waters. Sure enough, the blue robot rose from the surface of the waters, sustained by the power of his cursed chakra. "I'm not leaving until I see that you're all dead and the chaos emeralds are in my claws."

"This is getting very old," Shikamaru groaned. "Why don't you stop wasting everyone's time and just throw your worst jutsu at us and be done with it?"

"As you wish," the robot replied.

After another set of hand seals, the waters started to churn and rise higher. It wasn't long before the waters rose up to create a tidal wave that grew high enough to eclipse the moon. In the night, the wave appeared like a wall of living blackness that threatened to devour everything it touched. Metal Sonic stood proudly, riding on the wave's crest.

"Shikamaru, I know you're a genius in many ways," Temari said calmly, but then started building up towards a scream. "But do you have to be a genius at saying stupid things, too?"

Temari's insults were among the few that Shikamaru never found worth the trouble to answer. He was even starting to enjoy them. "Naruto! You're the only guy who can stop this! Summon the Frog Boss or something."

"What, are you crazy? Gamabunta hates salt water. He'll kill me!"

"What about a Rasengan, then? Use something that can push back the waves."

"A Rasengan? That might work if I could create a really big one…," Just then, Naruto remembered what Tsunade told him, "Each chaos emerald contains a tremendous amount of chakra." Two chaos emeralds were in his hands at that very moment. Naruto guessed that using them was no different from general chakra molding. By simply closing his eyes and concentrating, the blue emeralds brightened their glow and swirled around Naruto like electrons, placing him in the center of a sapphire energy field.

"He activated the emeralds," Sonic said, finally surprised. "Normal humans aren't able to do that so easily."

"Normal isn't a word that's associated with Naruto too much," Shikamaru smirked, but then frowned when he saw the tidal wave coming closer. "Let's go, Naruto. We don't have time for any fancy light shows."

"Yosh!" Naruto opened his eyes and nodded, then drew forth his chakra to form a spiraling ball in his hand. **"Odama Rasengan!" (Great Ball Spiraling Sphere)** Naruto was just about to lob the largest rasengan of all time, but the big blue sphere was stopped by a burst of red fire, coming from Naruto's own body.

"**At last. I can finally get a taste of the chaos emeralds,"** the voice that Naruto knew so well bubbled up inside him.

"Kuso! I didn't stop to think about what would happen of the red chakra mixed with the chaos emeralds. It could damage the Kyubi's seal!"

Naruto had the humongous Odama Rasengan in his hand, but his body wouldn't let him move forward. Strands of red chakra thickened and wrapped around him. He felt the Kyuubi start to take control over his every limb. The demon's foxfire burned hotter than ever before. Naruto wondered if this meant he would transform into a form beyond the four tailed transformation. Naruto found himself instantly gone away from the beach and in front of the Kyuubi's cage.

Slowly, the air in the dark chamber grew hotter and the water turned red, bubbling up and forming the shape of a fox. "This is going to be a great day, Naruto. You've given me the chaos emeralds and soon, I will be rid of this wretched seal."

"I don't have time for this, you stupid fox," Naruto yelled adamantly. "All my friends are about to get killed!"

"**Time? You speak to me of these mortal concerns? Time is not of the essence in this place. We have all the time in the world. As for your friends, their fate is the least of your worries."**

A window to the outside world opened up in front of Naruto. There he saw Metal Sonic's tidal wave coming down on the entire city. Just as the wave was about to impact, the entire beach started to rumble.

"What? An earthquake, too?" Shikamaru moaned.

"Looks like Naruto's out of it. I have experience in fighting giant water things of doom," Sonic said. "Let me go already and I'll deal with this."

"All right, if it'll make a difference," Shikamaru sighed ruefully and retracted his shadow.

Sonic could tell right away from the looks of everyone else's faces that they were confused by the enormous grin he wore. Maybe it was because he was just happy to be able to run again. No matter what the threat. That's just how he always was. With the ocean spray blowing in his face, Sonic across the quaking earth towards the tsunami. One jump later, and he was running up the wave. "Maybe if I can take out rust bucket, I can stop this tsunami from going any further," he imagined. "Whatever the case, that bot needs a few more screws knocked loose."

Without warning, the beach's sand shot up into the sky creating a giant barrier in between Metal Sonic's wave and the city. The sudden eruption of earth threw Sonic off balance,

"A giant wall of sand? That can only mean one thing," Shikamaru deduced.

Perched on top the massive sand wall stood an enigmatic looking guy. His dark red hair and desert brown trench coat blew powerfully in the winds.

Sonic looked up and down at this new arrival. "Okay, this is definitely one of those insane super powered villains who have the power to cover the world in eternal darkness."

"What are you talking about?" Temari interjected. "That's my brother."

"That makes complete sense," Sonic returned with a grin.

"Gaara?" Temari yelled aloud so her voice would reach up the sand wall. "What brought you here?"

"I've been keeping an eye on all of you ever since you left Konoha. Watching you just to find out what kind of enemies you would face in this world."

"Eh?" Shikamaru looked annoyed. "You mean you've been watching us this whole time?"

"I'm surprised none of you have ever noticed," Gaara pointed a finger above him, revealing a disembodied eyeball floating in the air.

"It must have followed us through the portal that Naruto made. Damn! How could I have missed it?"

"I created two eyes to follow both teams. I've also been watching to see what's happened with Neji's team."

"Wait. So how did you get here?"

"I'll tell you everything once I'm done here. Naruto will be able to take care of his problem. I will deal with your robotic enemy.

"Gaara, eh?" Metal Sonic's robotic eyes leered. "Who would have thought I would need to fight a ninja who could control the sands themselves?"

"You won't be fighting me," Gaara replied with half interest.

"No? Still, I'll have to do something about this meddlesome wall of sand you've conjured. **Suiton Suiryuden!" (Water Dragon Blast)** Metal Sonic manipulated the water to bring forth a serpentine dragon made entirely out of liquid. Sonic knew first hand that this only meant that its teeth were even stronger and sharper than a real animal's. Following the robot's command, it blindly lunged towards Gaara.

"**Sabakuryuden," (Desert Dragon Blast)** An even larger dragon manifested itself from the grains of sand and tore into the water dragon. The dragons roared as they collided, exploding into a chakra filled shower of sand and rain.

"You got me wet," Gaara said softly, flipping his hand through his wet hair.

"He's acting very cool," Shikamaru noted.

"Yeah. A little too cool," Sonic added.

"If you don't like being wet, then you can burn instead," Metal threatened, his eyes glowed deep ruby laser powered up.

"**Sabaku Kyu," (Desert Coffin)** A torrent of sand swirled around the startled robot, starting with his eyes, then spreading all around, thickening and encasing Metal within. From outside, Gaara heard Metal try to break through the sand with his claws. He tried to melt his out with blasts of energy. All of this was to no avail. Gaara already had his fist out, ready to close.

"**Sabaku Soso." (Desert Funeral)**

Simply by tightening his fist, the sand coffin collapsed in on Metal Sonic, sending tiny metal shards flying every where.

Sonic lifted up his hand, letting the shards of Metal Sonic land into his hand. "He's gone," Sonic declared. "Just like that. You completely destroyed him."

The great sand wall crumbled harmlessly back into the dunes and Gaara floated down on a cloud of sand to meet the others. "It seems that I did."

"Whoa. This guy could give Shadow some lessons in badassery."

"This is embarrassing," Shikamaru muttered. "After all the trouble we went through before, he comes down here and finishes everything in one move."

"Gaara, I'm really glad you came," Temari called and waved as she ran up to him. "I was actually saving a present for you for when I got back, but since you're here, I—" Temari felt the pockets of her dark lavender dress only to discover that something was missing. "My plushie! Where is it?"

"Plushie?" Gaara raised an eye ridge.

"Yeah. I made one that looks just like you," Temari explained while frantically sifting through the sand suspecting that she must have dropped it on the beach.

"Mine talks…," Shikamaru added morosely.

"YES! I found it!" Temari cried triumphantly when she discovered the Gaara plushie half buried in the sand. When she lifted it up for Gaara, her face froze and she screamed. "NO! It's…it's…"

"Its head fell off," Gaara finished her sentence.

Temari looked frustrated enough to cry, "It must have been chopped off during the fight. After all that hard work…"

Garra picked up the head that was detached and scowled at it in content. "I hate it."

"But Gaara, I—"

"It's been decapitated. I cannot accept something like that. This gift is awful," he said tactlessly.

At this point, every nice bone in Temari's body was shattered to dust. She replaced them with her fiery killing intent and brandished her metallic fan. Never before had she swung it against her brother, but this time she wasn't going to take it anymore. Not that Gaara cared, every swing of her fan was met with a shield of sand that rose to defend the kazekage at the last minute.

"Gaara…you're an asshole! You're the meanest, most rotten, evil little brother in the entire world!" Temari screamed and continued to swing her tessan erratically. "I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!"

"Hmph," Shikamaru folded his arms and turned away from the unsightly scene. "I always knew siblings were troublesome. Glad I don't have any…"

"This Gaara guy is really something. Makes you fell pretty useless, huh?" Sonic commented.

"It sucks to feel useless," Shikamaru agreed, "but then again it's more troublesome to have everybody need you all the time. Then again, some people live on stuff like that. Protecting everyone is where they get their true strength."

* * *

Inside the mental realm where the Kyuubi dwelt, Naruto stared angrily into the darkness behind the great sealed cage. With the whole problem with Metal Sonic gone, Naruto could give the

Kyuubi his undivided attention. "What makes you think I'll ever remove that seal?" he yelled adamantly.

Kyuubi let out a deep rumbling laugh. **"I don't need you to do that, anymore, baka. I took hold of you this time to tell you that I no longer need your help. Our alliance is over."**

Naruto grew wide eyed. He couldn't believe what the Kyubi told him.

"**You've hesitated for too long. You said it yourself that you don't need my power anymore. But I have found one who will accept my power. Someone who can remove this seal forever. Someone just like you. And me,"** the demon shifted his fearsome eyes away from Naruto. **"Isn't that right, Tails?"**

Naruto spun around to where the Kyuubi was facing. There, he saw a fox standing in the chamber with him. Naruto noticed that he had two tails, but what struck him the most were his eyes. They were the same shade of blue as his own.

"What are you talking about, fox? You're stuck inside me. There's no one else who can use your chakra. Who is this guy, anyway?"

"**Heh heh heh," **his laugh echoed through dungeon**. "Times are changing, Naruto. You've spurned me, but here, on Mobius, I have found a new way. This two tailed kitsune represents the key to my release. My bond with Tails is stronger than yours. Unlike you, he can help me achieve the demise of…Uchiha Sasuke."**

The way the Kyuubi paused and flickered his eyes. The tone he used to mention that name sounded strange to Naruto. It was like he wasn't talking about Sasuke, but rather to Sasuke.

**"This intrusion is most unexpected."**

"You don't need to look for me anymore, Naruto," Sasuke stated calmly and stepped forward. His sharingan stared at Naruto intensely and black marks of the cursed seal burned an eerie purple light. "No matter where I am, I can meet you here at anytime. Right inside you. I can even bring other with me."

"Naruto…" Sakura gasped when she saw the gargantuan presence of the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Tails. The four stood together in circle. None of them knew exactly what to expect. "Isn't it about time, Naruto?" Sasuke asked. "That all of Team 7 should stand together inside your seal?"

"What do you care?" Naruto sneered. I thought you broke away those bonds."

"You're right," Sasuke acknowledged. "But if I'm really going to make my point, then I should break everything down from the inside. You've seen what I could do already. No matter what monster lives here, I can kill you and Sakura together."

"**Truly your blood smells more despicable every time, Uchiha Sasuke. You truly ask to die,"** Pure malice dripped from every tooth. **"That trick of yours to suppress my all powerful chakra will not work twice. That I promise you."**

"If Naruto dies, you die too, right? In that case, then all of you will die at my whim."

"**Don't make death threats against me!" **the Kyuubi roared, shaking up the entire dungeon. The rage hissed through his bubbly form**. "Even if you do have the cursed power of the sharingan. I'm not as forgiving as Naruto. And neither is Tails,"** Kyuubi finished, his smile returned when saying Tails' name.

Tails shuddered and backed away. This was not a conversation he wanted any part in. "Look, I sort of came right in the middle of this whole thing. I don't really know what's going on—"

"**That's right! You were attacked by surprise for the chaos emeralds. You were caught in the middle of this conflict. It's up to you to end this. Kill your enemy and take back the lost emeralds. We'll combine them with my chakra and I'll make you invincible!"**

"Nani?" Naruto asked the Kyuubi. "You mean I'm not the only one who can draw upon the red chakra?" He never would have guessed that there could have been someone else who shared the same power. He wondered what life would have been like if he knew Tails earlier. They wouldn't have had to be alone in their suffering.

"**What do you care? You wanted me gone. Soon, I will be free of you,"** With that, the Kyuubi melted away into the pool, his boiling chakra disappeared into the darkness of the sealed gate.

"You've had the advantage of having that monster inside of you for long enough, Naruto," Sasuke said, his red yes shimmered in the emeralds' iridescent but now times have changed. With the chaos emeralds, I could have more power than anything the Kyuubi could ever give you. Tails will never even get the chance."

"Stop it. Sasuke!" Sakura demanded in a nervous voice. "Tails has nothing to do with your revenge. Nobody on Mobius does."

"Wrong. They have everything to do with this. If you would only look a little deeper, you'd see."

"I don't know what all this chaos emerald stuff is about Sasuke, but I don't want anyone else involved," Naruto interrupted impatiently. "Tell me where you are for real and I'll come down there and I'll stop you. And that's all without the Kyuubi's power!" he pointed at Sasuke.

The Kyuubi spoke again, but this time only one person could hear him**. "Tails, I know how this will turnout. Naruto can't beat Sasuke alone. And Sakura can't bring herself to hurt him. It's all up to you. The seal still stands. I can only give you a small amount of chakra. After that, it will be your will that can unleash our true power."**

"All right, Tails nodded. "Just do one thing first."

"**Hmmmm?"** Kyuubi mumbled curiously.

"Give those chaos emeralds back to Sonic."

"**As you wish, kit. And don't be afraid. I think you'll like what you'll experience,"** the demon added deviously.

Naruto didn't want to waste another second. He was all set to take on Sasuke when, without a word, Tails launched himself forward and grabbed Sasuke's emeralds from out if his hands. Sasuke lashed out with his forearm, gripping Tails by the neck.

"S-Sakura, help me," Tails chocked out. "You've got to punch him out."

Sasuke turned to Sakura giving her a death glare. "I can't do it," she shrunk back.

"Then punch the floor!"

There wasn't much time to think, but Sakura immediately liked the idea. Her arm brimming with unseen chakra, Sakura drove it downwards. Her gloved fist sank through the murky waters until it hit the earthy bottom. A seismic reaction started, repelling shattered earth and dispersing the water away from Sakura's fist. Naruto tried to get through the shockwave, but the ground gave way from under him and he flung back. The force continue to spin Naruto through the air until another wall of sand abruptly stopped him. The blue chaos emeralds rolled in front of Sonic's feet.

Dusting the sand off, Naruto quickly spun his head around left and right. He saw Shikamaru, Gaara, Sonic, and everyone else, all right where he left them. "Huh? Sakura's punch must have knocked me out of there and back to Station Square. The same thing must have happened to Sakura, Sasuke, and—"

"Hey, Naruto," Shikamaru approached him and started to ask. "You'd better explain what was going on back there. It looked like you lost control of your Rasengan."

Naruto wanted to mention to Shikamaru as little as he could about the Kyuubi. He wanted to avoid adding troublesome complications to their mission. Shikamaru would understand. "It was Sasuke. He's gotten even stronger. The last time I saw him, he was able to get into my head and suppress my chakra. This time, when he activates the cursed seal, he can use the power of the sharingan from any distance. Just now, he used it to see inside me. He even brought Sakura with him and tried to kill us both."

"Mendokuse," Shikamaru groaned slowly and loudly. "This whole Sasuke problem is getting worse and worse. I wish he'd just die already."

Shocked, appalled, and just plain pissed off faces greeted Shikamaru for what he said. He should have known that saying things like that were too troublesome.

"Look, I didn't mean it, okay? Our mission stays the same and rescuing Sasuke is still our top priority, but even so, let's be honest and tell me you haven't felt like that at least for a minute."

"I agree with Shikamaru," Gaara said. "Mostly about the 'kill Sasuke' part."

"All right. So we've had partial success so far," Shikamaru announced to the group. "We defeated Metal Sonic, found and retrieved two of the emeralds. According to Gaara, reinforcements are on their way to the Eggman Empire. As for us, we should get some rest. After our ordeal, marching straight into a fight with Orochimaru is going to be nothing but trouble. We will head there when the time is right," Having finished his briefing, everyone disbanded.

While the others wandered off, Gaara silently appeared behind Naruto. "You might be able to fool the others, but I know that the Kyuubi is involved in all this," Gaara said in a far too quiet voice.

"Can't fool another jinchuriki, huh, Gaara?" Naruto replied, not at all surprised that Gaara knew. "Even though you don't have your bijuu anymore."

"Just tell me what happened."

Unbeknownst to Naruto or Gaara, Sonic managed to zip over unseen and listened in on their conversation. Like the curious hedgehog he was, he hid and perked up his ears to eavesdrop on what they were saying.

"The Kyuubi's been acting a bit weird ever since we first found Sasuke," Naruto told the whole story to Gaara in detail. "I remember he was pretty surprised when Sasuke showed the power to dispel him. And since I told him that I'm not going to use his chakra anymore, the fox wants to find a new host to transfer into."

"Really? Has he found one?"

"I think so. There was someone else standing before the cage. One of the Mobians. He was a fox. He wore shoes like Sonic and had two tails."

"Another kitsune, eh?" Gaara crossed his arms, looking deep in thought. "Naruto, we'd better look into this."

"What do you mean? You think it's that important?"

"Until now, we thought the Kyuubi was the only kitsune in existence. If he's found another one and contacted him, don't you think that's something significant?"

Sonic frowned, finding the topic of this conversation even more troubling than anything else he saw today." What does Tails have to do with all of this?"

* * *

When Sakura smashed through the watery floor of the Kyuubi's prison, her fist also smashed into the real life metal roof of the Egg Fortress. No one was caught by the attack unsurprised. Even Sasuke's eyes widened at her sudden power. He might have been afraid if he believed that she would actually hit him. Sasuke scanned the jagged roof. Not much had changed in his brief absence. Knuckles, Rouge, and Konoha's nins had their eyes locked against the serpentine gaze of Manda and Orochimaru. Tails, however, was nowhere to be seen? He must have flown out of the sight during all the commotion created by Sakura. That left just Shadow and Sakura, adjacent to his left and right. Shadow was struggling to get up. Sakura was panting heavily. Entering the Kyuubi's prison and seeing the demon fox up close was not an easy ordeal.

"I remember what you said to me that day when I finally left Konoha."

She remembered that scene with absolute clarity.

"Please don't go!"

"I'll scream if you leave!"

"I'm leaving forever now," Sasuke said, holding her arm. "If you want to scream, then scream."

Without leaving time to blink, Sasuke activated his technique, **"Chidori Nagashi!" (A Thousand Birds Current)**

Sasuke surrounded himself with a white hot aura of electricity that captured both Sakura and Shadow in its field, sending intense doses of lightning based chakra that coursed through their nervous systems. The powerful surged through Shadow's nervous system, leaving him totally immobilized

"Sakura!" Tails shouted, appearing in the sky. To Orochimaru and Manda's great surprise, Tails blindly dove down the side of the tower, spinning his tails to shoot him down even faster.

"Don't just strand there, snake," Orochimaru ordered. "Stop him!"

"Pain in the ass…" Manda complained under his breath. "And what do you suppose I do?"

"You have a chaos emerald in your stomach. Use your imagination."

"Very well then," Manda opened his fanged mouth and sucked in a large gulp of air. He reared his heads back as a glowing silver light started to power up from within. In an instant, he expelled a straight beam of energy downwards.

Tails looked back and saw the metal walls of the tower liquefied into molten slag under the chaos beam. Tails saw the attack home in on him form the corner of his eye. He ignored it and pushed propelled himself down faster, swooping below Sakura and catching her in his arms. The human girl's weight didn't slow him down at all. Tails had once learned to fly at full speed while holding on to Sonic and Knuckles at the same time.

Sakura briefly lifted her head up in a daze to see her rescuer. Her eyes half closed and leaking tears, she could barely make out a blurry orange form with two bright blue dots set in his head.

"Tails," she sobbed. "Where did you come from?"

"When the Kyuubi passed on some of his chakra to me, I felt something about this human, Uzumaki Naruto. There's some kind of connection. It's like I know I have to stop Sasuke, but there's something compelling me to bring him back.

Sakura's eyes started to adjust after seeing the blinding power of Chidori Nagashi. She looked at Tails and noticed that red chakra was seeping through his fur. "Tails…, what did you say?"

"I said that I'm gonna bring back Sasuke," Tails couldn't understand why, but the words just seemed to flow right out of him. He gave her the thumbs up, grinned widely. "It's the promise of a lifetime!"

Lee was shocked. "Tails-kun gave Sakura Gai's nice guy pose! Where did he learn to do that?"

"Nice guy pose?" Tails scratched his head in confusion. "What are you talking about? Sonic does that thing all the time."

"Then this Sonic must be the most youthful being on Mobius!" Lee exploded with his eyes like burning embers. "YOSH!"

Since Lee seemed to still be in good strength and spirits, Tails came and gave Sakura over to him.

"It's all right, Sakura," Tails said, feeling like crying, too. "Just leave everything to me now." With his tails, he floated back up to the top and gently laid her down in front of her friends. "She's gonna be okay. I don't think Sasuke has it in him to kill her. Not yet, anyway."

"Tails, what's with you?" Knuckles shot him an oddball look.

"What do you mean, Knux?"

"That red aura coming out of you. What is that? It's definitely not chaos energy…"

Tails turned his back on Knuckles, finding the Sword of Kusunagi lying amidst as pile of rubble. "No, it's not. This is my own thing. I'll explain everything in a second, Knux. Right after I deal with Sasuke."

Sasuke didn't move an inch. He waited and allowed the fox to approach him. Tails stopped just a few feet away from the missing nin. He paused and closed his eyes, remaining motionless, as if he went into a deep trance. When his eyelids opened, Tails' sapphire yes were placed with a pair of burning red orbs with black slits for pupils. Looking into the mirror reflection of the katana, Tails knew that the transformation had begun.

At long last, Kyuubi no Kitsune, had found a new host.

The chakra that takes the shape of a demon fox, in the body of a kitsune.

Fueled by the fire in his eyes, Tails swung the katana, now weightless in his hands at Sasuke, stopping only when the blade just barely touched his neck.

"That chakra," Sasuke stated calmly. "You really do possess the demon's gift. It feels exactly the same with you as it did with Naruto. The same eyes. The same determination."

"What are you trying to say, Sasuke?" Tails asked, both hands gripped the sword tighter.

"I didn't notice it until now, but that day on the biplane…I was going to kill you. I was going to cut you in half, but you deflected my attack with your left tail. This happened to me before. It was just like when I was going to kill Naruto. At the valley of the End, he deflected my Chidori with his right hand at the last second. I aimed for his heart, but I impaled his right lung. Moments later, he came back, using the power of the monster fox. Is that what's going on here? Do we all share parallel lives across the universe? Are we all looking into some kind of reflection? He glanced down at Shadow, thinking about what this might all have meant for him, then turned back to Tails. "If this is so, then I can easily guess what's going to happen next."

"Stop listening to this bull, Tails," Shadow urged, straining to say every word. "Are you gonna slice him down or what?"

Sasuke ignored the paralyzed hedgehog's protests and went on. "You must have learned it by now, Tails. That first rate shinobi who know each other very well can see into each other's eyes and read their hearts. Even though I've seen you only once, I have seen your thoughts. By that look on your face, I gather you've done it, too."

"Well? Are you going to do it? Are you going to be naïve like her?" he turned to Sakura, "or will you bring out the monster inside you? I know all about the Nine Tails. It wants to kill me because of my cursed bloodline. You saw that I can look into the seal and suppress its chakra. And I can kill its host. I know that if Naruto dies, the Kyuubi dies too, but I wonder what happens to the fox if I killed you?"

"I won't let that happen," Tails stated firmly. "I don't know what to do, but I can't let you hurt Sakura or Shadow, or anyone else. I will protect them, no matter what. I don't know what's going on in your world or who you want to take revenge on so badly, but you know what? You came to this planet. It's not just your story. It's not your fight anymore. You're on our world now and I'll do whatever it takes to stop you. That's what Sonic would do. It's what Naruto would do!"

"In the Uchiha clan, strength comes from killing the ones who share the closest bonds with you. If you can kill me, maybe you could use the power of the Nine Tails to kill your best friend Sonic. Instead of chasing him around everywhere, you could easily just kill him and be the strongest one in this world. That's what real strength means. The power to kill at a whim. You must have wanted to do that at least once."

"Sorry, but haven't you heard? Sonic and I are the Unbreakable Bond. Nothing can ever come in between us!"

"No," Sasuke admitted, sounding defeated. "But then…" a smile slowly curled around his lips, "there's still your other hedgehog friend."

In one fluid movement, Sasuke grabbed Tails' hands and shoved him towards Shadow, plunging the sword into his abdomen. The blade went deep through the hedgehog's gut right up to the hilt where it exploded out his backside in a torrent of blood.

"Shadow…!" Tails sobbed brokenly.

Shadow could only respond with a small croak and collapsed face first onto the roof's edge. Rivers of blood flowed freely over the edge like small waterfalls.

"Well, that was interesting. A little disappointing, though" Orochimaru shook his head. "Sasuke really defeated the Ultimate Lifeform and that stupid little kitsune didn't put up a fight at all. I was wrong to think that there was some potential on this poor little planet."

Tails couldn't breathe. After everything he saw and heard today, and now Shadow being impaled with the sword that he himself held. Even with his white gloves stain with Shadow's blood, Tails was too shocked to take his hands off the sword's handle. Through his shaking cobalt eyes, it was like his brain nearly shut down.

"You've been taken way beyond your limits, Tails. There's only so much that a poor little fox can take. My strength is your strength. Are you ready to bring it out?"

"Yes," answered a small voice.

"Then it's done. Just remember," the Kyuubi spoke in a grave tone. "When you pass through, no one can pin you down. No one can call you back…"

Kyuubi's words trailed off like fading away into the wind. After a brief moment of complete calm, Tails felt his body erupt into a firestorm of red chakra.

Through his blood dimmed eyes, Shadow barely made out the form of a fox, the same size of Tails, but whose features were much more demonic. His claws were sharper, his canines more pronounced, and his boiling crimson eyes delivered a ferocious look towards Sasuke.

Sasuke backed away, feeling the pressure of the burning chakra pushing down on him. Even with the sharingan, he had to shield his eyes from the red chakra that swam around the fox, making his orange fur dance.

"Uchiha," a voice called out to him. There was no mistaking that it was Tails', but it was as if it came from everywhere. "You're dead!"

**To Be Continued in Chapter 9. Hope you guys liked this chapter. It's pretty much setting up for what's gonna happen in the next chapters. Lots of surprises coming up, so don't disappear or anything.**


	9. Tails of the Kyuubi

**The Kitsune in the Leaves**

**If you paid for this, you've been ripped off.**

**Sorry for the delay, but the story is of course, still going on. I also didn't have time to do the reviewer response things. I'll either do them next time or just send out replies to all your questions, comments, and stuff, okay? But thanks a whole lot for your comments, everybody! Let the new chapter commence!**

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**Chapter IX: Tails of the Kyuubi**

_Revenge is like a poison that can take us over_

"I'll make this quick," Tails announced, crouching into an attack stance, baring his clawed hands. His two tails folded close to his sides. The kitsune's eyes glowed red-black, the color of molten lava. His mouth opened in a snarl, teeth flashing white as death.

Behind the little fox, Sasuke could clearly see the manifestation of the Nine Tailed Fox in all its terror. The overwhelming chakra of the demon's presence would have shriveled the stomach of the hardiest men, but Sasuke stood strong, keeping the same cool eyed exterior that spread his name across the shinobi nations. With a simple touch of his hand, Sasuke knew that he could dispel Kyuubi and revert Tails back into the harmless two tailed kit.

"Hn," Sasuke fearlessly stepped into the swirling field of kitsune chakra and swiped his hand against the fox's nose. He held onto Tails' nose and concentrated on dissipating away the energy.

Seconds passed, but nothing happened.

"Get off my nose," Tails said to him in a nasty tone, then knocked Sasuke away with a nastier tail whip.

Orochimaru urged Manda to bend down a little closer so he could study Tails and Sasuke more carefully. "His chakra suppressing ability didn't work? Did something happen to Sasuke?" he wondered. "Or is that ktsune somehow immune to the sharingan?"

"The cursed power of your clan's Sharingan isn't working this time, is it?" Tails asked, a grin revealed his elongated canines. "You've lost your edge."

Before Sasuke could even blink, he found himself lying in a steadily growing pool of this own blood, his body struggling to get up as his life blood poured from an open gash on his bare chest.

"He's faster than me now." Sasuke admitted to himself. "Even in this state, I should be able to go to cursed seal level two."

"I will not die yet," the Uchiha whispered. With those words, another enormous, darker chakra presence made itself known. Tails took a step back when he saw Sasuke's transformation take place. The black markings twisted and shifted over his skin, contorting his flesh into a purple gray hide. The Uchiha's raven black hair grew longer, taking on a whiter shade. A pair of grotesque demon wings burst out from his backside, stretching out like gigantic webbed hands.

"He's gotten desperate now," Orochimaru commented, now amused by the whole spectacle. "He won't be able to retain his power for long. Not with those injuries."

Tails sniffed the air, causing his nose to wrinkle. The air was heavy with blood's coppery stench. Mostly a mix of Sasuke's and Shadow's. Tails' eyes followed the crimson trails that led to the black hedgehog, eyes shut, lying by his side on the floor, Sasuke's katana still impaled through him.

A calm smile curled around the kitsune's lips. "He's still alive," he said warmly. Looking ahead, Tails saw one of the machine gun's that Shadow dropped during his fight. "Don't worry, Shadow. I'll finish this for you."

After the new set of skin closed up his wounds, Sasuke flapped his gruesome wings and lunged forward. Tails jumped out of the way and landed on Sasuke's head, then knocked him away with a back kick. Aiming the gun upwards, he unloaded a stream of bullets towards Manda's head. The bullets rained through the air with tails of red chakra following them, giving them the appearance of mini comets.

Manda tried to swerve his head out of the way, but his large frame proved to be too easy a target. The bullets penetrated the snake monster's purple hide, the Kyuubi's chakra searing through.

"You should've been more careful, fool," Orochimaru chastised Manda, leaping off his head. "Although I admit, that was a very interesting trick. Infusing chakra with other weapons to give them extra power so that they would damage your otherwise impenetrable hide."

"Would you just shut up already? I don't care if that really is the Kyuubi's chakra. I'll still devour him!" Manda hissed devilishly. The anaconda launched down and opened its mouth to its fullest extant.

In front, Tails saw the snake charge downward to devour him. From behind, he sensed Sasuke forming his hand seals. Caught in between, Tails flew back and grabbed Sasuke's arm, then swung him forward straight into Manda's mouth. "Devour this!" Tails yelled. A hysterical scream emerged from Sasuke's mouth as he fell into the giant snake's open maw. A scream that was quickly muffled after Manda made a large, unpleasant gulping sound.

"He force fed Sasuke to Manda!" Orochimaru stated, awestruck by what took place. "I don't believe it!"

Feeling the sensation of the cursed Uchiha worming down his esophagus made caused Manda to let out a pitiful groan, "Urgh! I don't like the way that went down," Manda groaned. "Orochimaru's stupid cursed seal must have made it impossible to digest this body. Feels like something tearing out my insides!"

Suddenly, Manda's stomach exploded in a shower of guts and stomach juices. The snake released a piercing cry that shook the entire machine empire, dying down until all that could be heard was the low crackling noises coming from the hand of a dark figure, wielding a ball of lightning. He emerged forth, covered in a stinking mess of entrails. Sasuke's exit was followed by a pool of thick, putrid green bile flowing out of the snake's body.

The kitsune that sent Sasuke down there in the first place revealed a grim smile, signaling that he wasn't through with either of them yet.

"Stand aside," Tails warned and extended an elongated claw of pure chakra. The claw slithered past Sasuke and dug deep into Manda's exposed flesh. Tails closed his eyes and concentrated hard as his claw squished through the snake's belly. When he found what he was searching for, he retracted the claw with the white chaos emerald ensnared in its grip. The gem didn't lose a bit of its luster, even with powerful stomach acids dripping down its etched surface.

"Was all that just to get the chaos emerald?" Orochimaru wondered. "He must be using the same power as Naruto, but he's not just a wild monster this time. He's…cruel."

Tails chuckled grimly, "Just be glad you don't have fur. That stuff would never come out."

Sasuke sneered wickedly and swiftly pulled his sword out of Shadow's stomach, causing a faint groan to pass from the hedgehog's lips. Even with his sword arm broken, Sasuke could still use it for defense. Holding up the katana in one hand, Sasuke drew back his Chidori charged arm.

"If you want to live…" Tails started to say, but then broke into a fit of laughter. Pulling a hand over his face to control himself, he continued, "What am I saying? You're dead where you stand!"

Sasuke flung his arms forward, hoping to cut through the demon fox. Tails was able to use his enhanced vision to see Sasuke amidst a dark blur. Waiting for just the right moment, he flickered aside and caught Sasuke's wrist. With a firm twist of the arm, Tails felt the snapping apart of bones and tendons. Before Sasuke could even scream, Tails reared back a burning fist and struck his foe hard in his head, the impact flung Sasuke's body off the tower, skyrocketing like a missile all the way down where he crashed right through the city's ground level.

Tails stared intently at his hand. Hot blood ran down his claws and evaporated into red steam. "That punch was way stronger than anything Shadow or Knuckles could throw. I don't think even their super forms could match this."

"**You'll notice that this chakra is very easy for you to focus on,"** Kyuubi pointed out inside Tails' head. **"It cannot be compared to your Super Tails form granted by the chaos emeralds and other chaos powers. Where that is merely an external control, my chakra is a part of you, giving you internal power. This gives you an edge even amongst jinchuuriki, who are artificially bound through their seals. That is the main difference between you and my human host. The reason I'm telling you this is because the more chakra you possess, the easier it becomes to control. It's annoying, but most of my essence is still trapped inside the seal. At this point, I have only been to able to leak out enough chakra to bring you to the two-tailed stage, matching your twin tails. Over time, as the seal weakens, more of my chakra should be made available to you, until the seal is completely destroyed and then you can ascend into the full Nine Tails transformation. Once you reach this level, your powers will be without limit!"**

"Thanks for the info," Tails replied. "So that's why Sasuke wasn't able to suppress your chakra."

"**Now go down and finish him off. Tonight, he dies by our hands,"** the demon's words rumbled inside the kitsune's head.

"Here, Rouge! Catch," Tails called to the bat and tossed her the chaos emerald. He knew that Orochimaru might still try to try something sneaky to steal it back, so having Rouge keeping it safe for now seemed like the best thing to do. Surprisingly, the sannin stood among them on the rooftop quietly, more interested on what else Tails was going to do. None of the others dared to attack him. The entire team had used up a lot of their chakra while Orochimaru was at full strength. Neji and the others knew that the only thing to do at this point was to watch and wait.

While they stood there, Tails twirled his tails flew off in a rush of violent wind.

* * *

Neji applied his Bayakgun to watch the events below unfold. He still couldn't believe what his eyes were telling him. He was positive now that the enormous chakra he sensed from Tails was none other than the Kyuubi no Kitsune himself. What is the legendary bijuu doing on Mobius," he wondered. "Did it come to this planet after the Yondaime defeated it?"

It took a few minutes for Sasuke to adjust his eyes. The force of the demon fox's striking him in between the eyes, combined with the close up flashes of chakra left him temporarily blinded. With his sight impaired, Sasuke paid close attention to what his other senses could tell. The air was hot and the feeling of both blood and sweat dripping down open wounds made for extreme discomfort. His ears heard the sound of something bubbling and seething. There were echoes. That meant that he was in a large, enclosed space. Sasuke opened his eyes to find himself in a dark chamber. He saw that his cursed seal was shut down and his body was back to normal. The only light sources came from a hole in the ceiling above him where he must have crashed through. Below him were vats of chemicals boiling in bright fluorescent colors. One whiff told the whole story. Acidic, toxic, and extremely flammable. He gripped his hand tightly on the guard rail of the steel catwalk that served as the only place to move around.

"I could here you breathing all the way from the top," said a voice from behind. Sasuke spun around to see Tails standing on the bridge, slowly approaching him.

Sasuke winced in pain as he slowly lifted Kusunagi and pointed the blade at the vulpine, his last means of defense.

"What are you doing?" Tails asked in an arrogant tone. "You're completely wasted. Both of your arms are broken, you can't use your cursed seal anymore, and your sharingan is useless against me. And you went and called me weak!"

"What are you doing?" the words hung unpleasantly in Sasuke's mind calling up images of his hated brother. He asked himself the same question when Itachi defeated him in their last fight. "More than two years have passed and still nothing's changed. Even with that bastard Orochimaru's training. That's why I need these chaos emeralds. They're my only chance to end this. Somehow, I'll have to survive this."

In a burst of speed and chakra, Tails flew up, then swooped down and pounced on Sasuke, grabbing his neck with both clawed hands.

"**Yes,"** the Kyuubi hissed. **"There's really nothing you could do that would cause him the same agony that he has brought upon you and others. But you can come close."**

Tails could see the Kyuubi grin in the crimson haze. "He's right. The things I could do right now," he glared down at Sasuke, his burning eyes boring down into him. "I could squeeze him and pop his head clean off. I could push down on his ribs until they pierce his heart. I could pound his skull until it fractured into so many pieces his brain would spill out."

"**If only Naruto wasn't this weak,"** Kyuubi smirked, happy that his goal was now in reach.

Hearing that name again, Tails hesitated. Slowly, he brought his razor sharp claws down to meet the Uchiha's eyes, threatening to pluck them out in a heartbeat. Tails twisted his tails closer and wrapped each one around Sasuke's legs. Even with the surrounding chakra, they were still soft to the touch, yet they still were still deadly weapons. Simultaneously, he gave them both a hard pull.

_Crack!_

After the heard the sound of crushing bones, the fox withdrew his tails, got up and slowly stepped away from Sasuke.

"What…what did you just do?" Sasuke asked, struggling to speak.

"I just finished what should have been done a while ago. I broke your arm and your legs. Now you won't be able to move at all. Sakura can take you back home now. Under her care, you should be able to heal just fine in no time."

"What are you doing, brat?" Kyuubi growled. "This isn't how I expected it to end."

"Neither did I, but I bet you have a good idea of where I got the idea to do that."

Kyuubi knew what Tails was talking about. He saw what happened on that day at the Valley of the End.

"Even if I have to break the bones in your arms and legs, I will stop you!" Kyuubi remembered well how Naruto screamed those words to Sasuke with hot tears flowing from his demonic eyes. The emotions that coursed through his blood were so intense that it was then that Naruto managed to awaken the one-tailed Kyuubi stage for the first time.

"So, it took more than two and a half years, but that fight between Naruto and Sasuke finally ended, here on Mobius."

Sasuke loosened up his tense muscles. There was no point in wasting anymore energy. "Why?" he asked simply. "Why would you do that?"

Tails' murderous eyes softened. "Because I was alone right from the beginning. So believe me I know the suffering of pain and loneliness. But I never suffered from the bonds I made."

"That's why I wanted to kill you," Sasuke said in a weak whisper. "Losers like you have no idea…"

"My bonds never made me suffer. I was lucky to bond with a guy like Sonic. He was always running around protecting people. Even the jerks on Westside Island. I idolized him for that."

"My brother. I idolized him. I can't die until I've killed him."

"Really, the only reason I'm not going to kill you is because if I did, it would make Sakura sad. That's all. I wouldn't want to break the bond that you have with her. You'd think she'd forget about after you crossed over into the abyss, following the shadows that dwell there in the darkness. But she didn't. None of your friends did. They held on and chose to follow you. Shadow tried to kill you, but Sakura stepped in. Even now, she won't give up. She's fighting for you."

"Whatever…"

"Let me tell you a secret," Tails leaned in closer to Sasuke. "If Sonic or any of the people important to me were to be killed, I'd…probably go just as crazy to get revenge."

"…"

"That's the kind of stuff you come to realize when there's a demon living inside you. It's scary. When I access the chakra of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, I can feel myself tapping into a primal force that comes from the darkest layers of existence. An ancient power that has been soaked in the blood of millions. But that doesn't mean I have to be a monster." Tails reached out his hand warmly to help Sasuke up. "Neither of us needs go into that dark place. You can get out of this abyss that you've plunged into and come back"

"I'd sooner see you in Hell!" Sasuke spat and pulled out a single kunai. His broken arm shaking to hold the knife in hand, he charged it with electrical power. There was a mad look in his blood red eyes that disturbed even the Kyuubi's chakra. Tails, thinking that Sasuke was crazy enough to continue attacking, waited for the throw.

Unexpectedly, Sasuke threw the kunai aside. It turned out that Tails was wrong. Sasuke wasn't crazy enough to attack him.

He was a lot crazier.

"You maniac!" Tails shouted, darting after the kunai. If that lands in one of the vats, then—"

Too late. The kunai, glowing with crackling energy plunked into a vat of chemicals. There was an instant reaction as the entire brew glowed violently and burst out into a cataclysmic explosion. Tails shielded his eyes as a tidal wave of destruction rushed through him. For Tails, the inferno meant nothing. Even as he took full force of the blast, not a single hair on his body was singed.

Sasuke on the other hand…

Tails propelled himself through the enormous conflagration, trying to find any sign of life. All he could find were small shreds of clothing that got eaten up by the flames. Tails flew back up, readying himself to take on the next opponent. Looking back, he saw that the fireball consumed an entire sector of the robot city.

Orochimaru kept his calm and collected demeanor even as thoughts that his precious new body, his key to possessing the Sharingan had just gone up in smoke. He turned to speak to Manda, but the snake already cut him off.

"Don't say anything to me, Orochimaru! This is all your fault! If I so much as hear the utterance of your cursed name again, I will eat you alive and digest you slowly! Then I'll spit out your bones and dump them into the deepest shithole in the universe where not even the Shinigami will be able to find you!"

And with that having been said, the great anaconda vanished in the same smoke cloud that brought him.

Orochimaru was alone now. He had no choice now but to step into action himself. Standing on the edge of the rooftop, he peered down at the flying demon fox. The fires below brought a bright gleam to his yellow eyes.

"It will take some time for Manda to recover. Even then, I probably shouldn't use him. Well, it seems that it's really come to this, has it?" Orochimaru said calmly and brought a hand to his gut. As he did so, his mouth opened wide to allow a snake to crawl forth. That snake then opened its mouth to bring out his personal katana.

Knuckles and Rouge looked on in horror as they saw the snake drop the sword into the sannin's hand and retreat back into his throat. The shinobi team, having known that he could do that, was only slightly less disturbed.

"Now way! The snake guy is going to fight, now," Past experiences with Orochimaru taught Knuckles an idea of what kinds of things the snake man was capable of.

Moving towards the edge of the tower, Orochimaru's amber eyes gazed down to see the fox who stood unharmed in the midst of the inferno.

The spirits of the snake ands the fox, the devil and the demon, spoke to each other through their glimmering eyes.

Having done a careful inventory of Tails' fighting style, Orochimaru calculated the best way to read his movements and counter them. Tails, who now housed a demon who may have lived for a thousand years or more, did the same.

Orochimaru threw himself off the tower and dove straight for his fox prey. On his way down, he reared back his snake sword and it flung it straight to Tails. Seeing the mythical sword slicing through the air on the way to impale him, Tails had plenty of time to step aside and let the sword bury itself deep into the metal surface. Taking his eyes off the snake sannin, Tails never saw an elongated tongue wrap tightly around his leg. Looking up, he saw Orochimaru anchored to the tower wall. With a flick of his enormous tongue, the sannin heaved Tails out of the fire and brought him closer to him by retracting his tongue.

"If you really have accessed the Kyuubi's chakras, then I will manipulate your seal and shut you down," he presented Tails with an open palm. His fingers produced a small purple flame, one by one, until there were five glowing lights in his hand. "Gogyo Fuuin!" (Five Elements Seal) he announced and jabbed Tails' white belly with his burning hands.

Tails howled in pain at the force of this dark chakra surging through his body. Soon enough, the fox shaped aura surrounding him started to dim. When it faded away completely, Tail's struggling body went limp and his heads slumped down.

Suddenly, one of the kitsune's two tails erupted in a burst of red chakra and coiled around Orochimaru's neck. In a flash, Tails was covered in his fearsome body of chakra.

"Fooled ya!" Tails erupted in a demonic fit of laughter. "Your stupid Five Points Seal can't work on me. I don't have a seal!"

Orochimaru assessed the situation he was dealing with and it was bad. "Neither Sasuke's sharingan, nor my sealing ability were able to manipulate the Kyuubi's chakra!"

"Now burn!" Tails roared and swung his tail, casting Orochimaru into the fiery blaze below him.

Using one his wind jutsus, Orochimaru fanned the flames, creating a circle of safety where the fires could only dance around him. Rather than manipulating the wind to create a sudden blast, he concentrated on his chakra to sustain the winds. Gesturing with his hand, he called for his sword to return to his hand. Kusunagi heard the command of its master and resonated with a blue light as it floated on its own through the fires and came to Orochimaru's circle. Not a second after the katana's golden handle came into Orochimaru's hand, a set of shuriken whizzed towards his face, only to knocked away with one sword swing.

"Who threw those?" he demanded to know. He sensed that the Kyuubi's chakra was still some distance away, so that meant someone else decided to attack. Scanning the area for any sign of the enemy, he saw a disembodied eyeball floating in the sky, looking directly at him.

"Sabaku no Gaara's jutsu," Orochimaru studied the eyeball carefully. "I know that Naruto used the Yondaime's sword to bring his team here, but how did Gaara get here?"

"You of all people should have been able to figure that out by now," came a muffled voice from behind the sannin.

Orochimaru had to strain his ears to hear the soft voice over the bellowing winds, plus, whoever it was had a very quiet way of speaking. "What a bizarre surprise to see you here…," he spun around and his amber eyes came face to face with the hard glare of a blood red eye with a strange kaleidoscope design. "…Hatake Kakashi."

"Your ambition has driven you to do some pretty crazy things, but this time, you've really outdone yourself."

"My informants have told me that you've actually developed the Mangekyou Sharingan. How you can use it to open up dimensional portals. It must take a lot out of you to send yourself to Mobius with that. Seeing that thing in your left eye only makes me crave that power for myself even more. How unfortunate that I lost my chance to have it all for myself."

"Sasuke."

"Heh heh heh. It appears that you have the habit of always arriving too late, Kakashi. Tails was right. In the end, his own demons consumed him."

Kakashi closed his eyes for the briefest moment. "Sasuke…, I did everything I could for you…and now this. I was too naïve. In the end, was death your fate? Your cruel future?"

"No one's future is certain, Kakashi-kun. And here I always thought that my future would lie in the boy's body, but as it turned out, he is gone and I will take the power of Chaos and find a greater body. This is the path to finding the truth of this world, Kakashi. That's the secret that Sasuke could never know."

"I feel like punishing the fool that I am for letting this happen, but no. In the end, it's all you. Your price to pay, Orochimaru!" There was no anger or grief in the sensei's words. Just a strong determination.

"I'd like to deal with you now, Kakashi, but right now there's a demon fox who wants to kill me, and he's quite the troublesome little beast."

"That's not your problem anymore," Kakashi said. Flinging aside his kunai, he braced his right arm and sent a powerful flow of lightning chakra into his hand. **"Raikiri!" (Lightning Blade)** The charged energy morphed into the shape of a sword, made of pure lightning.

Laughing in the presence of Kakashi's famous jutsu, Orochimaru lunged forward, stopping on a dime and twisting his katana so that it would slice off the Kakashi's hand. Having read Orochimaru's movements, the jounin maneuvered out of the sword's range and brought his lightning blade down on the sannin's head. With expert reflexes, Orochimaru spun his sword around towards Kakashi.

The clash of swords, one crafted from a bolt of lightning, the other composed of mythical steel, sent shockwaves of chakra scattering through the air. The two ninjas continued their dance of swords while the fires surrounding them danced more violently, as if reacting to their chakras.

"You've gotten a lot stronger since we last met, Kakashi," Orochimaru commented between swings. "You're really able to keep up with me."

"Or maybe you've just gotten weaker," Kakashi taunted.

"It's true that my body is slowly dying," the sannin admitted, "and I must make a transfer soon. But even with Sasuke gone, I can still attain all the power I need to gain eternal life."

"You must be referring to these," while continuing to trade sword blows, the masked ninja reached his free hand into his flak vest and revealed a gleaming crimson emerald.

"One of Shadow's chaos emeralds," Orochimaru's eyes widened. "You must have taken one while the rest of us were distracted!"

"Even though I'm only holding one, it more than makes up for the immense chakra loss that my Mangekyou Sharingan costs me."

"You've only tasted the beginning, but you can't imagine what I can really do with those things," the snake man boasted.

"At this point, there's nothing more you can do that would surprise me, Orochimaru."

"Oh, I'm sure I can come up with something, Kakashi-kun. If you live long enough to see it, of course," he drew his katana aside and extended his other arm. Orochimaru summoned the purple, green, and yellow emeralds into his empty hand where they hovered above it in a straight, glittering line. It seemed that he was dabbling with a little chaos control himself.

"What will you do now, Kakashi?" Orochimaru smirked, his white cloak blowing in the wind. He held out his sword, the colors of the emeralds flashed off the reflecting blade.

"Drop those rocks!" a monstrous voice boomed through the fires around them.

Like a true demon descending from the scorched skies, Tails descended into the windswept circle amidst the two combatants.

"I don't care much for Orochimaru, so we might as well kill him while we're at it," Kyuubi suggested to Tails.

I'm with you on that," Tails acknowledged with a nod.

"You've caused a lot of trouble for me, Tails. Because of you, I've lost my precious container that offered me so much, but I won't give up my chaos emeralds so easily" The snake lord's own purple chakra rose up and surrounded him. "You've forced me to make up for what I've lost, so I'll have to leave now, but you'll see me real soon. I'm not leaving Mobius until I get everything I want, kukukukukukuku."

While giving his eerie laugh, he retracted his tongue along with Kusunagi and swallowed them in one hideous gulp. He slowly melded with the ground until he was gone from sight.

"He's gone for now. I guess that leaves just you and me," Kakashi said, discharging the lightning that crackled in his hands.

"Who are you?" Tails demanded, pointing to the silver haired jounin.

"Nobody important," Kakashi shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. "But I have a friend I'd like you to meet."

"So it's true. He really does possess the chakra of the Kyuubi," a new voice echoed through the burning air. A shadow fell from the sky. Suddenly, another shinobi was there, crouched before Kakashi and Tails.

Noticing the forehead protector he wore, Tails saw that it was another Konoha ninja. He was in dark ninja gear and with a much less noticeable hairstyle than Kakashi, he was therefore the least colorful, but the most traditional shinobi he had seen yet.

"I see, it is the ANBU nin codenamed "Yamato," the way Kyuubi mentioned his name told Tails that he wasn't happy to see this particular ninja. "His presence here only makes things worse for us."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Tails asked.

Before the demon could register an answer, the entire city began to shake violently.

"It looks like Orochimaru went and breached Eggman's core reactor. He's quite the sore loser," Kyuubi laughed.

Tails knew exactly what that meant. "This whole place is going to explode in a gigantic nuclear fireball!"

"Damn, what a time for this to happen, but there's no way I can let the Kyuubi run free with any vessel," Yamato said and rose up his palm. "While I'm no friend of Orochimaru's by any means, I think we'll all be glad he left me with this gift."

Yamato held his ground against the powerful tremors while a strange kanji formed inside his palm. **"Hokage Shiki Jijun Jutsu: Kakuan Nitten Suishu!" (Hokage Style Retirement Technique: Enclosed Hermit Insertion Heavenly Hanging Palm)**

Upon hearing the words of the sealing jutsu, Tails felt a wave of fatigue overcome him. "What…what's happening?" he asked as his eyelids started to close and he dropped to his knees.

"Sorry, kit. Nothing I can do about this one. I have no choice, but to return to my cage. Even with you, I am weak against the power of the Shodai Hokage," Kyuubi admitted. "So long, kit. But don't worry. I await the day that you will come to release me from my prison."

Tails heard the demon fox's voice fade away until it echoed in the darkness of his mind and his whole body went cold as the red chakra slowly receded. Eventually, Tails' eyes shifted back to blue as the aura of the demon kitsune left him completely. Tails breathed one last tired sigh before collapsing on the floor unconscious.

The quaking of the city grew more violent as the tall robot factories started to rattle apart. More explosions fired off in the distance.

"You had an escape route planned, didn't you, Yamato?" Kakashi asked, looking unusually calm.

"I do, Kakashi-sempai. Are you ready, Sai?" Yamato shouted.

"Way ahead of you," an invisible voice replied, followed by a poof of smoke. Another Konoha ninja appeared standing arriving at the rooftop with the others.

"Sai!" Sakura shouted, surprised to see the infamous ANBU in a belly top. "You came here, too?"

"Gaara was watching you guys the whole time with his eye jutsu. We came because it looked like you needed reinforcements. I'm going to get us to safety."

"How? There's no way we can get out in time!"

"Oh, no?" Sai pulled out a scroll and pen and began to draw on the paper in green ink. After swiftly gliding his pen along the length of the scroll for his finishing touch, Sai called out the name of his technique, **"Choju Giga." (Super Beasts Imitation Picture)**

The ink leapt off the scroll on its own and a great serpentine, green dragon came to life.

"Everyone hop on," Sai gestured for them to sit on the dragon's back. The Konoha nins and Mobians did as he said and leapt onto its scaly back. Knuckles was afraid that he'd fall right through its body, but he quickly saw that the dragon was as solid as any real dragon. No sooner that everyone was onboard did the dragon fly off with a roar, swooping down to the base to pick up Yamato and Tails and then jetting high into the night sky. The dragon was long gone with its passengers when all of Robotropolis erupted into a colossal mushroom cloud, wiping away clean Robotnik's entire region.

* * *

"Suiton," Tails heard the command word being shouted followed by an abrupt splash of water into his face.

"Wha?" Tails sat up and looked to see Yamato standing above him, water dripping off his open palm "Where am I?"

"We're at the outskirts of Eggman Empire," Rouge explained. "We escaped just as the city was obliterated. After all that, we got away with two chaos emeralds," she held out the white one, given to her from Tails, and the red one from Kakashi.

After a moment, Tails rose to his feet and glanced around the mountainside. He caught the view of a mushroom cloud rising from the ruins of Robotnik's city. Glancing at his computer watch, he saw that it was 5:30 AM and he could see the sun was just starting to creep up from the horizon. Normally, Tails liked to see the sunrise, but this time, the air was filled with dark clouds and the air was foul with smoke. The red dawn made it look like it was Hell on Earth.

While it was a pretty depressing view, Tails was happy to see that everyone he had met was still there, including some new people. "Everybody made it out alive," he smiled. "That's good to know."

Not only were all the members of the group alive, but everybody seemed to be in good shape too. Kiba, Shino, and Akamaru Knuckles was already hard at work, training the crushing power of his arms by smashing his knuckles into nearby boulders all the while muttering something about turning Orochimaru into snake jam next time they met. Neji, Tenten, and Lee, meanwhile were huddled together doing an inventory check on their weapons and supplies. Sai sat alone, scribbling in his notebook. And then, Tails saw the masked ninja he encountered before, relaxing with his back to the mountain wall. His Konoha headband looked like it was slipping down his face, the way it covered up his left sharingan eye, probably an intentional thing. As if that mask didn't cover up most of his face, his eyes were now buried in the small book in his hand.

Tails squinted to see the title of Kakashi's book. "Icha Icha Tactics (Make Out Tactics) Sounds boring," he thought.

"You were all insanely lucky to have made it out of here alive. Those were deadly opponents you were facing," Yamato said with a dead serious expression on his face.

"Yeah, I guess we all pulled through all right and—"Tails froze in place, just as he remembered that he hadn't seen any sign of Shadow. "I forgot all about Shadow! Is he still alive?"

"I'm right here," Tails heard Shadow's soft spoken voice call out to him from an out of the way spot. He spun around to see Sakura applying bandages to his stomach.

"Hey, how're you feeling, Shadow?" Tails asked, rushing over to their side.

"Pissed off, that's how I'm feeling," Shadow grunted, followed by a low cough. "Even with my regenerative abilities, it's taking a long time to get to full strength. Worse, that attack and my subsequent recovery drained me of all my chaos energy. If we can just nab those last emeralds from Orochimaru…"

"Here, Shadow," Sakura offered him a large red pill. "This blood replenishment pill will help you heal from the loss of blood."

"All these weird pills and things…can't you just pour some more of that green chakra into me?"

"That takes up too much of my already depleted chakra," Sakura said icily. "It looks like you've lost all your energy too, but you're accelerated healing abilities are still helping you."

"Fine," he snorted and tossed the pill into his mouth and started chewing.

"Hey, Shadow?" Tails spoke up

"Hmmph?" Shadow was too busy chewing to speak.

"I'm really glad you're not dead," he said happily.

"Even though I'm alive, I still feel like shit," he said sourly. "I can barely even stand. Now where's that Sasuke loser that did this to me? I will crush him with my bare hands."

"He's dead."

Shadow looked a bit surprised. "He died already, huh? What happened…oh, I remember now. It was you, wasn't it? Right before I blacked out, I sensed an incredible aura of energy surrounding you," a sinister smile crossed Shadow's face. "So did you roast that Uchiha prick to a crisp?"

Shadow yelped as he felt a painful tug in his sides. He saw that Sakura stopped being so gentle with those bandages.

"What was that for? Sakura gave no answer, but stared harshly at the hedgehog for a moment, then stormed off.

"Aw, man. You really shouldn't have said that, Shadow?" Tails shot Shadow a disapproving look.

"What did I say?"

"You know how she feels about Sasuke."

Seeing as how he just tried to kill Sasuke, Tails wasn't sure if he was the best person to go talk to her right now, but he felt he had too, anyway.

"Sakura," Tails nervously began. "I know you're probably mad at me for almost killing Sasuke, but I really tried to save him in the end. But then he went and killed himself." Tails exhaled a deep melancholy breath. "I never guessed he could be that hopeless."

He saw Sakura slowly turning around to face him. He had no idea what she was going to do or say. Would she punch him? Tails shut his eyes and racked his brain to think about how to deal with this.

"He's still alive."

"Huh?" he opened his eyes to a surprisingly serene expression from Sakura's face.

"Sasuke's not dead," she said calmly. "He made it out alive and I'm going to find him. No matter what it takes!" The expression in her watery emerald eyes was that of total determination. As if not even the Kyuubi would have a chance of stopping her.

The Kyuubi! Tails' eyes widened when he thought about the kitsune. Kyuubi was some kind a demon lord. He would know for sure what happened to Sasuke. Tails searched within his mind to contact his guest, but he found nothing. No trace of any red chakra. No demonic chuckling. That technique must have really chased him out.

"Sakura's right," Kakashi chimed in. "Even though I let my emotions get the better of me when I heard that Sasuke died, it's a basic law in the ANBU that if there's no body found, you can't assume he's really dead."

"So?" Shadow crossed his arms and leaned against the rocky wall. "Even if the jerk is still alive. What are you going to do when you find him? Kiss and make up?"

"Itachi," Tails said for his one word answer. Saying that name caused every single person around to turn their heads. "When Kyuubi gave me his power, he also told me all he knew about Sasuke. I know all about how that guy killed the whole clan. When I looked into Sasuke's heart, that was the only person he could think about."

"Hmm. You might need to deal with Itachi anyway, Tails," Kakashi informed him. "You know that he's a member of the Akatsuki. A group of S-class criminal ninjas whose goal is to capture the various tailed-beasts. If they learn about you and the Kyuubi, then Itachi may very well come looking for you."

"Then it looks like I've got no choice," Tails looked up, meeting the eyes of his teammates and shinobi friends. His sapphire eyes burned with an intense fierceness. "After all…," he stuck out his thumb and grinned widely. "I still have to keep that promise of a lifetime, right?"

"Tails," Sakura bent down and planted a kiss on his forehead, then embraced him in a tight hug. "You're so kawaii."

Kakashi replied with a warm smile towards Tails. He couldn't actually see the masked man smile, but he could tell mostly because his eye always closed in an affectionate way when he did. "If we're all ready, then, our first stop will be to Station Square," he instructed. "We'll set off right away."

Having heard everything that was said, Knuckles could contain himself no longer. After already working of a ton of aggression from training his fists, the echidna still felt ready to explode. The scene set before him was charged with so much…youthful spirits, as Lee would put it, that he had to make a move now.

"Sakura-san," Knuckles jumped down before her and grabbed her hand. "I didn't have the chance to tell you this yet, but now that we've found a peaceful moment, I must thank you for it was you that saved my life," Knuckles got down on one knee and gallantly professed his undying gratitude. "As a Guardian's honor, I owe you my life and thus pledge my undying loyalty. Ask anything from me and I will do it! I will do it because I love you!!" he then embraced her in a great big echidna hug.

When the words that came out of Knckles' mouth registered in her ears, Skaura felt like she was going to faint" S-somebody get this…this creature off of me!" Sakura cried out, breaking free from Knuckles' grasp and punching the echidna hard in his love struck face, sending him skidding across the earth where he landed at Tails' feet, making a large hole in the process.

"Tails, she called me a 'creature.' Is that good?"

"I don't know, Knux. I think the term you wanna be called is 'kawaii.' Like me," Tails said while pointing his thumb to himself, not being able to hold back a cocky look.

"That doesn't mean anything," Knuckles leapt to his feet and smacked his fists together. "All I need to do is prove my worth to Sakura-san by showing her how only I can match her in strength! Then, she'll come around."

"Knuckles, I think you've been spending way too much time in Mushroom Hill," Rouge stated jealously.

"That beauty and strength. It's like nothing I've ever seen before. Sorry, Rouge, but there's nothing I love more than a woman who can kick my ass."

"I can arrange that for you if you want," Rouge threatened. "What in the world ever gave you the idea to go after a human?"

"Don't knock love for humans. It's not as weird as it sounds," Shadow muttered from the sides. He could never admit it, but in many ways, Sakura reminded him a lot of Maria. "But in this case, Knuckles wins over Thick Brows in sheer ugliness. Lee and Sakura would have a much better chance together."

"Yosh! The genius hedgehog has at last understood the flower of the green beast's youthful love!" Lee jumped into the air with a youthful kick and a shout.

"Why is everybody here so crazy?" Sakura shouted. She felt the urge to pull out her pink hair. "Let's just get out of here!" she exclaimed and was the first to jump on the green dragon's back.

"Is that thing even safe?" Knuckles got his bearings together and dubiously eyed the ink dragon. The dragon simply narrowed its glowing yellow eyes at Knuckles and snorted with what looked like contempt.

"It's fine, Red," Sai assured him. "Now saddle up and take that bat bimbo with you."

Rouge gasped. "Oh my gosh, you're not nice at all!" she shot an accusing finger at Sai. "You're a horrible man!"

"Oh, man," Yamato groaned. "Would you all just drop it?"

"No! I dare you to step off that dragon right now and say that again. I'll whoop your ass!"

"Using the Mangekyou Sharingan and fighting Orochimaru has exhausted me," Kakashi said, sitting back to get more comfortable. "You're in charge, Yamato."

"Fine then…," Yamato sighed defeatedly. "If that's how it's gonna be. **Shichoutou no Jutsu." (Four Pillar Prison)**

Rupturing through the cracks of the earths, poles of thick wood surrounded everybody, forming a large cage around them.

"Now I haven't gotten the chance to work with all of you guys before, so what I say applies to all of you. I don't tolerate infighting in any of my teams. I know it's not gonna be easy for such a diverse crowd like us to get along, but I insist that you do. If you can't…," Yamato got as close as he could to everyone and made a terrifying face at them. "I don't mind dealing out strict punishments."

For the most part, Yamato was a very normal looking guy, but when he wanted to show his fearsome side, he had the ability to bug out his eyes to transform into a gruesome 'ghoul face.' Tails had the misfortune of being the closest to Yamato when he made his scary face. Even fifteen minutes after Yamato went back to normal, Tails was still shivering in fright.

"Tha-that was the scariest face I've ever seen. This guy is really freaky. I've never seen anything that terrifying before."

"Hey, Rouge. Do you think I could do that move, too?" Tails asked, his fear beginning to be replaced by curiosity. "I mean maybe if I bugged my eyes out as far as I could…" Tails pushed away at his eyelids and bulged out his eyes where until they were practically coming out of his sockets.

"You were scarier when you were a demon fox."

"Yeah, maybe you're right. I guess I was overreacting a bit."

"Stop goofing around," Yamato tapped Tails on the back and scary faced him right from the side.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Tails recoiled in horror.

"Maybe it was a mistake to let him lead," Kakashi muttered and buried himself back in his book.

"All right, then. I think we're ready to go to Station Square now," Yamato announced, his face having already reverted to normal. "Neji, you're still a leader around here. How's our chakra capacity looking?"

"It's manageable. We should be able to provide sufficient aide for the other team."

"Great. So here's how it's gonna be. Gaara came along and took care of the situation at Station Square. Shikamaru's team has the final emeralds in their hands. Logically, it would seem that Orochimaru will appear and attempt to take them, so we're going to get there to stop him. If all of us can stick together as a team, we can win this. Sakura, that means you have to let go of any animosity towards Shadow. Shadow, try to put a damper on your assholiness, would ya? And Rouge, be patient with Knuckles. His mind is still in the middle of recovering from Orochimaru's attack, so he'll be acting a little weird for awhile. And everyone should just pretend Sai's not here. If he says anything, he's really trying to complement you and leave it at that. And Tails…"

"Yeah?"

"Itachi is not going to be an easy man to defeat. Even Orochimaru fears this guy. If you expect to beat him, you and your friends had better train yourselves well in the ways of the ninja."

A mixture of "Okays" and "yoshes" came from the crowd as they nodded to Yamato and boarded the back of the green dragon. With a low roar, the serpentine dragon levitated itself off the ground and blasted off into the skies.

Just as one flying beast sped away from Eggman Empire, another swooped down through the ashen skies towards the decimated ruins of Robotropolis. Like Sai's ink dragon, this flying creature was also lifeless. A being with hollow eyes, it was a bird fashioned from nothing but clay. Perched atop the bird was a ninja, distinguished by his flowing blonde hair and the long black cloak sporting red clouds. Using a mechanical scope fitted over his left eye, he scanned the ruins of the technological region.

"Amazing!" the ninja exclaimed with glee. "Had I not seen it myself, I never would have believed it. Truly, the explosion that leveled this city was a real work of art!"

After the ninja had scoured the perimeter of the city, the clay bird took off towards the mountain range that surrounded the city. Atop one of the mountain peaks, three more shinobi, all clad in the same dark cloaks sat and waited for his arrival.

"Deidara-sempai," a youthful voice called out and waved to the man on the bird. The voice belonged to a mysterious man who hid himself in an orange mask that covered his entire face. "Did you find what you were looking for?

"More than enough, Tobi," Deidara replied. "It's true, then. Orochimaru himself was responsible for this."

"So he actually went through with his plan and came all the way out here to get those chaos emeralds," the second ninja spoke. This one was much taller than the others. A gigantic sword was slung across his back, wrapped in cloth. His skin took on a light blue appearance. His feral smile gave him the features of a shark. "But he lost poor Uchiha Sasuke on the way," A row of razor sharp teeth revealed themselves when he grinned. "What do you think of that," he turned towards the third ninja, "…Itachi?"

"…"

"Come on," the shark man, his name Hoshigaki Kisame, nudged Itachi, his Akatsuki partner. "Surely, you have an opinion on this matter."

"The two-tailed kitsune was down there, wasn't he?" Itachi asked.

"Oh, yeah," Deidara replied. "That fox, along with Kakashi's team fled the place towards Station Square. To where Sonic the Hedgehog, the so-called 'Fastest Thing Alive' awaits."

"Ha! I'm looking forward to facing this Sonic the hedgehog. I hear water is his weakness. In that case, I will destroy him easily," Kisame gloated, lifting up his huge sword in one hand. "My Samehada will slice the quills of his back!"

"I have no interest in fighting this hedgehog if we don't have to."

"You're not much fun, Itachi," Deidari grumbled "We should go down there and grab all the chaos emeralds for ourselves while we're here. All seven chaos emeralds will soon be gathered in one place. As we speak, Dr. Robotnik is mobilizing his forces to strike back at those who carry them. Orochimaru will leave himself open for us to attack. We shouldn't waste this moment."

"We will watch them all and take the chaos emeralds from whoever wins," Itachi explained calmly. "For now, there's no need to take any pointless actions. Let's not forget that our most important priority is to capture the kitsune they call 'Tails."

"Yeah, that's right," Kisame agreed.

"Sure," Tobi nodded. "We won't forget that."

"Don't worry," Deidara said. "We'll take them all down with a bang. The Akatsuki organization will have the Kyuubi in its hands."

Itachi got up and walked off until he found a secluded spot where he sat to contemplate by himself. Having just recently used his Mangekyou Sharingan's newfound ability to teleport to Mobius, he needed to rest. Rays from the sun's rising pierced the dark sky, painted the clouds a brilliant red hue. The red dawn of a new day had come.

It was now only a question as to who would the new day belong.

**To be continued in Chapter 10! Be here next time when all the members of Team Sonic and Naruto gather together! I'll update soon!**

**Glossary**

**ANBU - short for Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai , lit Special Assassination and Tactical Squad**

**Akatsuki- Red dawn**

**Bijuu- tailed beast**

**Kakashi-kun – literally "my Kakashi." An affectionate way of referring to somebody, -kun for guys, -chan for girls**

**Kakashi-sempai- Kakashi senior**

**Kukukukukuuk- Evil laugh. Often used by Orochimaru or Kyuubi**

**Samehada- Kisames's sword. Literally - Shark skin**

**Shinigami- Death gods**


	10. Chaos Emeralds are a Blast!

**The Kitsune in the Leaves**

This time I just wrote responses to those that asked questions and left comments whose answers I felt would be of interest to everyone, so I put them up. Yet, I thank everyone for reviewing and being so patient. I hope this next chapter was worth the wait.

Dragon Man 180: Tails is too good to intentionally kill Naruto by removing the seal, even though he's starting to grow into using the Kyuubi's chakra for himself. It might come down to a battle of wills between Tails, Naruto, and the Kyuubi. Even worse than Kyuubi escaping would be if Knuckles got a shiny new bowl cut!

azngirlchibi: I thought everybody loved cliffies. So many writers use them. Some I've read are amazing! This chapter has a cliffie too, but later on, I don't think there will be as many.

Dr. Weird: That's a lot of characters to bring in, but I'm sure some of those guys will appear later. Itachi's right, though. The power of reviews…wow!!

Asher Tye: I'm glad you love Kyuubi Tails. I was hoping he'd turn out good. It would be very crazy if he got his hands on the chaos emeralds, so it'd be best if they kept them away from him. Naruto and Tails' relationship will slowly unfold throughout the story. There's still hope for Naruto because while the seal is getting weaker, Kyuubi can't leave entirely while Naruto is alive, so right now he's kind of sharing some Kyuubi with Tails. As for Sonic, I'm sure he's gonna want to look out for his bud and make sure the Kyuubi doesn't hurt him and that the Akatsuki won't capture him.

Blue Mage Quartet: Characters from Sonic and Naruto are notoriously hard to kill. Having fallen through space and things makes them really tough. Manda is also very hard to kill since he's practically a snake god. Next chapter mostly action, but soon relationships will start developing.

Zohaku: I like those new characters, Suigetsu, Juugo, and Karen, so they could make an appearance. If Sasuke lives, he might need their help.

The Shaman Master: Heh, when I pictured that scene, I just had to write that in! Glad you liked it.

TC chan: Yeah, it is pretty hard having all these charries running around, so I'm gonna have to spread them out about it. Kyuubi is definitely coming back. Now that you fed him, he'll never leave…

Shining Shadow: Tails will be some serious training later on and I already thought up the name of a cool weapon for him to use later in the story and he'll be kicking a lot of ass. And sorry the update took so long. Screaming at me does usually get me to update faster, though.

Apple Panda-chan: Yeah, I know they're pretty long. I think I'll stop writing mad long chapters and do smaller ones. There's just so many people and things I need to stuff in and to get top the ending I want. This one is also very long, so sorry about that! Just relax and take your time with it. I think it's a fun read!

Lycropath: I thought up some ideas about using Team Hebi in the story later on, but I'm not sure if I'll use them yet. Also, I put your fan art up in my profile. It's really awesome, so thanks a lot!

Ray Tails 2 Prower: No offense taken. Sakura is very obsessed with Sasuke. Naruto too. I thik that's what made me want to blow Sasuke up.

* * *

**Chapter X: Chaos Emeralds are a Blast!**

Pakkun raced across the shore of Emerald Coast, making little paw prints in the wet sand as he went. Having seen but not taken part in the recent events made all the more anxious. Not that he had much to offer in a fight against killer ninja hedgehog robots. Luckily for him and the team, Gaara came by and finished things off. And if the Kazekage made his way to Mobius, there was only one person he could have brought him there. "Naruto will be glad to know that Kakashi is going to be here," the pug thought. When reaching the end of Naruto's trail, he found the blonde genin lying asleep on his back at the edge of the seashore.

"Rise and shine, Naruto," Pakkun announced.

"Unghhh…" Naruto groaned and barely cracked open his eyelids. "Wha…? What time is it?"

"5:30 in the morning. The sun is shining its lovely rays over the dark blue waters. Your favorite colors!" Pakkun smiled. "It's a sight not to be missed."

"Taking one quick look towards the sea to view the sun's "lovely" orange rays, he rolled over away and threw his orange and black jacket over his face to block the sun's offending rays.

Pakkun's smile faded. "Seriously though, you should really be getting up before the tide comes in."

"The tide, huh? That's nice," he replied groggily.

Apparently Naruto was more exhausted from the night's events than the dog thought. "Hey, you want me to bite you awake?"

"You don't have to bite Naruto-kun," Hinata interrupted. Ever the early riser, Hinata brought forth a ready made cup of steamy ramen and waved it under Naruto's nose. "This always works."

While the title of Hokage was still along way to go, Naruto had already won legendary status as Konoha's Number One Ramen Binger. A title that brought eternal shame to the entire Akimichi clan. When the aroma traveled up his nose, Naruto shot up from the sand like a rocket and greedily snatched that ramen cup. It was good ramen too, as evident by Pakkun's salivating tongue, who was never into ramen so much to begin with.

"I forgot how hungry I was," Naruto exclaimed, while stabbing the dish with a pair of chopsticks. "I was dreaming about ramen. Thanks, Hinata."

"And thank you, Hinata-chan for awakening Naruto," Pakkun said admirably.

"Ano, it was nothing really," Hinata started to blush. "I'm always up at this time to practice my techniques. Especially when I'm near the water. I was making ramen for Naruto-kun, anyway."

"Oh, Pakkun," Naruto yawned his words out, dispelling the last bits of sleepiness. "Where have you been?"

"While I was checking out the fire hydrants in this city, I was also making sure to follow the scent of any chaos emerald. At the same time, I've keeping my nose open to any unusual scents that I might find."

"Yeah, so what's new?"

"The good news is that Neji's team is returning with their emeralds, so we're going to regroup and plan how to get rid of Orochimaru. I just got the word from Kakashi who's coming along, too."

If Naruto didn't finish his cup, the ramen would've spilled all over him. "Kakashi-sensei's coming? Wait, did they see Sasuke? What happened with him?"

"I don't know. Kakashi didn't say anything…, but I don't think Sasuke is the only Uchiha on Mobius," Pakkun said grimly.

"You mean…"

"Relax, I don't smell Itachi himself, but I definitely picked up on the Akatsuki's scent. They're out there, so I just thought you should know."

"Ano, I'm sorry those horrible ninjas keep coming after you, Naruto-kun," Hinata said softly.

"Don't worry, Hinata," Naruto said with his signature foxy grin. "It's probably just one of those lame wad Akatasuki guys, maybe the jackass with the explosives who lost his arms."

On top of one of Station Square's tallest skyscrapers, overlooking the coast, Deidara scanned the coastline below with his mechanical eyepiece and a special earpiece for eavesdropping.

"Lame wad?! Jackass?! Damn! I'll kill that jinchuuriki kid! He makes me so mad!"

"Maybe he wasn't talking about you, Deidara-senpai," Tobi helpfully suggested.

Deidara turned to Tobi with one of his impatient looks. "You know, you got a lot in common with that noisy punk. Both of you piss me off so much, un! You sure you're not him under that mask?"

"I just think this is a bad idea," Tobi said to his partner. "Itachi said we weren't supposed to get involved in this conflict just yet."

"You think I give a damn what Itachi thinks?" Deidara growled. "That red eyed badass isn't here which means we're doing things my way, un."

"If you say so…," the orange masked nin shrugged.

"It's not like I'm gonna need you to do anything, anyway. I found these things while scouring the ruins of Robotrobolis," Deidara said, lifting a red tube from his sack. Its bright glow added a wicked tint to the Akatsuki nin's smile. "These are power cores called chaos drives. They use energy extracted from the chaos emeralds to power various machinery. A single tube can offer nearly a permanent supply of energy to a high powered robot. If I add this to my clay, just think of the magnificent artwork I could create, un!"

"Sounds lovely," Tobi replied. "By the way, you might want to stop talking like that while we're here. You know with the 'uns' and everything. Nobody on this world will be able to understand what you're saying."

"So what if they don't?" Deidara snapped. "I'm not here to dialogue with them. I just need to blow them apart, un! I'll wipe out all those jerks with my empowered clay. Even Orochimaru will get his ass fried! You can count on that."

"Yeah? But with those kinds of explosives, are you sure you won't accidentally kill off the Nine Tails? It would really suck if you did that."

"Don't worry. I remember that there are two of them this time and I'll try to let them live. We just have to make sure not to target anything orange colored." Fitting his mechanical scope his eye, the bomb artist scanned the coastline. "Good. It looks like even that Kazekage shrimp is down there. They won't even suspect us."

Deidara stuffed the chaos drive into his bag of clay. Opening up the mouth in the palm of his hand, a saliva drenched tongue reached out to scoop up a heap of clay. Stuffing the exploding clay together with the chaos drive, he chewed them up and mixed them together. The more his mouth chewed, the more chaos energy spread throughout his body.

"Heh, I really got to hand it to you this time, Deidara," Tobi joked.

"You're lame, Tobi," Deidara showed off a red glowing smile. "This time, I'm going to make a masterpiece."

"Your techniques sure do come in handy sometimes."

"That's enough, Tobi," Deidara motioned for him to calm down.

"You sure know how to perform and excellent hand job."

"SHUT UP, TOBI!! I'M GONNA FREAKIN' KILL YOU!"

"Nuh-uh," Tobi wagged his finger. "You said you can't kill anything orange."

After shouting a long string of expletives that would have made Hidan crawl into a fetal position and cry, Deidara flew off in his clay bird, leaving Tobi behind.

* * *

"I'm seriously going to die if I don't pound some food soon," Sonic said to no one in particular. He just felt that it really had to be said. Hearing the inescapable rumbling coming from his stomach. He forgot that hadn't gotten a chance to eat all day and all night. Not since the chili dog stand closed due to the Metal Sonic attack. He was hoping Amy would lend a sympathetic ear, but she was too busy making friends with all those ninjas, particularly Gaara.

"And your own villagers really tried to kill you?"

"When I was born, they sealed the Shukaku inside of me so that I would become a living weapon," Gaara told his long and tragic story to an awestruck Amy who sucked in every word while they sat together over a campfire on the beach. Her teal eyes, glowing in the firelight became mesmerized by Gaara's haunting tale. "At first, I lived only for myself and I would crush anyone who got in my way with my blood soaked sand. For years, I lived the life of a cold blooded monster for a long time until…"

"Yak yak yak," Sonic thought as Gaara went on telling Amy about his sob story. He thought these badass strong silent types were more, well…silent. "Although I really should ask him about Tails and the Kyuubi when he gets around to it. If my little bro has a demon fox cousin or something, then I need to know what it can do to him. There's no question that Naruto is the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki. Should I tell him that I know Tails?"

"Ramen Time, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled excitedly, hopping over to the fire carrying several different cups of ramen in his arms followed by Hinata who carried a pot of water. There was a visible mark of irritation at Naruto's bursting into the middle of Gaara's story.

"Speak of the devil," Sonic heard that familiar rumbling coming from his stomach. "I'll ask Naruto about demons after we eat. No sense getting into more angsty topics on an empty stomach. No wonder that Shikamaru guy wandered off."

Not too far away from the others, Shikamaru found himself a nice out of the way cliff that overlooked the ocean. He marked this spot where he could get away from his noisy teammates. (Having Naruto, Sonic, Amy, and Ino around at the same place was not fun!) The cliff side gave him the perfect view to sit back and collect his thoughts while watching the rising sun emerge from the sea, sending out rays of light that turned the blackened sky into a calming dark blue. He loved this time of day because it felt good to stare directly into the sun at a time when its light wasn't so blinding. Just sitting back and doing nothing while the morning broke out relaxed all his nerves. It was times like this that he loved to be alone.

The only person Shikamaru allowed to sit with him was Temari.

"Although it was a long and troublesome day," Shikamaru said. "I'm happy that for once, I was able watch the sunrise and the sunset."

"That's because you're too lazy to wake up in the morning," Temari reprimanded him. "You're going to miss out and see your whole life go by if you don't learn to just get up."

"Bah. I'm still young, you know. Not an old crone like you. Everyone in the world is so high strung with their troublesome schedules. They act like if a day goes by without them, it's the end of the world."

"Excuse me! Did you just say that I was old?"

"See? That's what I'm talking about. Make just one small comment and everybody freaks out."

"I'm two years older than you. That's it!"

"Like you said, life goes by pretty fast, but two years is still a long time. Being the Kazekage's older sister must mean you've got a really hard job to do, huh?"

"It keeps my busy pretty much 24/7," Temari admitted with a sigh. "But the entire village is counting on my family and Gaara has become so dedicated to protecting the village, especially after the Akatsuki attacked."

"I'd tell Gaara he should lighten up for once and just take a vacation to get away from the Sand village for once, but I'd doubt he'd listen to me."

"How right you are, Temari," said Gaara as the Kazekage that they mentioned appeared before them in a cloud of sand.

Shikamaru coughed and shut his eyes to keep flying bits of sand from irritating him. Temari, meanwhile seemed to be used to it.

"There's another way of getting around, you know," Shikamaru said. "It's called 'walking.' Try it next time."

"Don't get snippy with me, Nara. I came to inform you on what my Third Eye has seen."

"Oh? So how did the mission at Eggman Empire go?" Shikamaru asked with unusual interest.

"They fought Orochimaru resulting in the entire city being destroyed. Luckily, all the team members plus several Mobians escaped and are coming here to meet us. They have one chaos emerald while Orochimaru has claimed the other four."

"And anything else?"

"Sasuke is presumed to be dead."

"What?!" Shikamaru and Temari exploded together.

Whatever emotional stance Gaara took on the issue was invisible on his face.

"I wonder what Naruto will say to that," Shikamaru looked down thoughtfully. "Damn, I know I wished that the guy would drop dead, but still…"

"Do you think I should tell him?" Gaara asked.

"No. I think it would be best if Sakura or Kakashi told him. This isn't going to be something he can take so easily."

"More importantly, I came to you because you should formulate a plan as to how we're going to deal with Orochimaru, since we're going to be his next target."

"That will take time," Shikamaru admitted. "I've never even seen the guy before, let alone know what he's capable of. I asked Tsunade to tell me what kind of jutsus he's got, but when she did, she just warned me that he knew too many to count. And supposedly, even his abilities aren't even enough to take on Itachi, which makes me wonder what kind of trouble will be caused if the Akatsuki will take an interest in Mobius. If Kakashi can come here, that means the Akatsuki could, too."

"Shikamaru," Temari hushed him. "Didn't you just say that it's bad to be so uptight? Just relax and take it slowly."

"I will be waiting to hear from you when you're ready," Gaara said flatly.

"I get the feeling he doesn't like me," Shikamaru whispered into Temari's ear when he felt Gaara was out of range. "Why doesn't he like me?"

"It's because you're Shikamaru," Temari rolled her eyes.

"There's so many different ways this could go," Shikamaru fell back to his cloud watching position. "I wish I had another genius on our team. Maybe somebody more motivated, too."

"If that's all you need, then it would be my pleasure," an icy voice hissed into Shikamaru's ears. Temari and Shikamaru jumped up and whirled around, the owner of the evil voice invisible.

"I don't want you to lose your confidence so quickly," a dark purple fire erupted before them. And suddenly Orochimaru was there, standing before them both.

"Listen up, you troublesome sicko," Shikamaru nearly chocked the words out. "It's because of my skills that you weren't able to transfer your body to Sasuke in time. I'll screw up your plans even worse this time around."

"Yes, and it makes it much worse to know that this was done by the dullest person in that entire village. Taking revenge on the likes of you would be a waste of my time," Orochimaru sneered at Shikamaru and easily slapped him aside. Moving closer to Temari, he gently stroked her cheek and whispered into her ear. "Where is your faithful Kazekage? He's the one I really want to see," Snakes slithered from beneath his robes and weaved their lengthy bodies through the air, encircling Temari's fan. A clear killing intent radiated from the Snake Sannin's amber eyes.

If Temari was intimidated at all, she broke out of her fear instantly. "You will not lay a fang on Gaara," she announced. Her voice was deadlier than Shikamaru had ever heard before.

"Hmmm. The last time I saw you two together, I was watching your match at the Chounin tournament. Gaara was a real monster back then. I've missed the old him."

"What do you want, snake?" an irritated voice sounded from behind. Orochimaru slowly turned around to see Gaara who whipped up his hands and flung several tendrils of sand that wrapped around the snakes, violently crushing their heads.

"That eyeball. You were spying on me," Orochimaru's killing intent grew stronger. "I don't like to be spied upon."

"A pity you didn't notice it sooner."

"And what's worse is that you came here in person" Orochimaru continued. "I know that it was you that killed Metal Sonic. That wasn't a good thing to do."

Gaara's only answer was a further narrowing of his eyes.

"He was the first robot to have ever received a cursed seal," Orochimaru continued. "Honestly, I didn't expect it to work. It's difficult to grant a machine the power to manipulate chakra."

"The element of water will always fall before the element of earth. It's as simple as that," Gaara replied.

"But not lightning," Orochimaru smirked "Rakurai no Jutsu!" (Lightning Bolt)

A sudden blast of lightning shot forth form his hands and exploded into Gaara's chest, sending shards of hardened sand flying and forcing Gaara to fall to the ground, prone.

"Gaara! No!" a shrill voice yelled from Temari. Shikamaru saw how she was about to reach for her tessan, but he grabbed her arm and held onto it tight. "Let me go, Shikamaru! Why are you stopping me?"

"If you interfere, Orochimaru will kill you for sure. There's no way in hell I'm going to let that happen."

"Let go of me, Shikamaru. You can't tell me what to do!"

"You were willing to stand by and follow orders while the Akatsuki captured Gaara. I'm asking you now to do the same."

"I'm getting tired of this already," Orchimaru said and opened his mouth wide, allowing a snake to crawl forth and produce the Sword of Kusunagi in its own mouth.

"The same sword that killed my father," Gaara muttered weakly.

"It was thanks to Kakashi that you were able to come to Mobius to provide backup. You already know how I was able to increase the cutting power of my sword to the point were it can cut through the chakra barriers that separates our worlds. It will cut through your sand armor just as well," Orochimaru then brought down his katana mercilessly on Gaara, the wave of blood that splashed over the sand was proof that he penetrated right through the protective shell.

"Temari…" Gaara struggled to speak through his blood laden lips. "Whatever happens, do as Shikamaru says. He's right. I can survive this."

Tasting Temari's distress made Orchimaru grin, " When Gaara's dead, I shall happily bring him back to life for you…with Shikamaru's body as a sacrifice. Wouldn't you like that?" Orochimaru raised the blood soaked sword above Gaara's heart, ready to plunge it in deep until a gentle tapping on his shoulder caused him to halt his movements.

"Hi," a blue hedgehog grinned and waved happily to a confused Orochimaru. With that same hand, the hedgehog curled his hand into a fist and with one fluid motion, shoved it into his stomach.

The speedy slam to the gut forced Orochimaru to bowl over, nearly dropping his katana. "Sonic the Hedgehog, you're even faster than I imagined," his wild eyes lit up in the presence of the famed blue hero.

"So you must be the Orochimaru guy everyone's been complaining about. Are you really as scary as they say?"

"Knock it off, you baka hedgehog!" Shikamaru yelled. "You don't know who you're dealing with."

"Such speed. Just like the Yondaime," Orochimaru managed to smile while he clutched his stomach. "So there really exists somebody who is a natural user of the Haraishin no jutsu. (Flying Thunder God Technique). A guy with your kind of speed might be useful as one of my subordinates."

"Work for you? Ha! Dream on."

"Oh, I dream big," the sannin chuckled.

"All right, smiley," Sonic taunted. "Why don't you try out your sword against my quills?" The hedgehog leaned back a bit, revving up for a sonic spin. Sonic was confident that he could wipe that eerie smile of Orochimaru's face. He was always used to being the only guy who got to grin constantly in a world where everyone was too nervous, upright, or emotionless. Orochimaru, in turn, sensed the hedgehog's irritation and was looking forward to playing with him for awhile until both were distracted by a loud noise erupting from above.

"SONIC!" a high pitched voice rang out from the sky. Sonic looked up to see a green dragon descending from the heavens. Tails was perched right on top of the dragon's head. Waving to his best friend with the biggest smile on his face, he looked like he was having the time of his life. Not waiting for the dragon to land, Tails jumped off its head and hurled himself into Sonic's arms "Sonic, you're not gonna believe what happened to me in the last few days!"

"I can imagine," Sonic remarked as he looked at the unusual friends Tails brought with him. "Which reminds me," Sonic returned his gaze towards the evil snake sannin. "We'll catch up on things later, big guy. Right now, I have to deal with Orochi…hey, do you mind if I just call you "Oro?" Your name is very long."

"Sonic, be really careful when fighting Orochimaru. He has the power to stretch himself!" Tails warned with a dead serious expression on his face. "Especially that tongue!"

"Hey, the O-man might look scary, but I'm not gonna be intimidated by a guy who has the power to lick his elbow."

"I knew he'd beat us here," Kakashi said gravely as he and the other shinobi hopped off the dragon's back and surrounded Orochimaru.

"Well, would you look at this," Orochimaru smiled. "Everyone's altogether now. Hatake Kakashi, Yamato, Sai, Hyuugu Neji, Rock Lee, Tenten, Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, Haruno Sakura, Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru, Gaara, Temari, Rouge the Bat, Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails Prower, and of course, Sonic the Hedgehog. That's twenty of you who have banded together, but there are some who are still missing. Where is-"

"Right here!" a poof of smoke followed the boisterous shout. Out of the mist, a long blade slid against Orochimaru's neck with a metallic hiss. When the smoke cleared, the sannin saw Naruto gripping the Yondaime's sword and behind him, Hyuuga Hinata safeguarded the two blue chaos emeralds, clutching them tightly. The gems' radiance created a halo of blue light around her and added a bright glow to her white eyes.

Conveniently, a kage bunshin stood at Naruto's side and held out a bowl of ramen for him. Without taking his eyes off Orochimaru, Naruto used his left hand to dip his chopsticks into the bowl and lifted up a hunk of noodles. Still firmly gripping his katana, Naruto brought the chopsticks to his mouth and slurped up that ramen.

"Even now you eat ramen?" Orochimaru asked, shifting his smile into a look of annoyance.

"Itadakimasu, asshole!"

If Naruto's rude tone wasn't proof of his anger, then Orochimaru only had to gaze into his cobalt eyes to see the fire of a demon burning deep within. But he was not the only one to sense the aura of the beast. Naruto had all his focus on Orochimaru, he didn't even realize that another kitsune was there.

"It's him," Tails was sure of it when he saw the blonde genin. "That's Naruto, the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki. Just like in those visions the Kyuubi showed me. Naruto's really making the Kyuubi's chakra act up. Maybe I can reach out," Tails closed his eyes and tried to concentrate and get a feel for the awesome chakra he possessed before. Sure enough, a field of blazing red chakra filled his minds and took the shape of a familiar nine tailed kitsune.

**"Hey, kit. Good to see you again so soon,"** Kyuubi said in an exhausted tone, unusual for a being of his stature.

"Hey, are you okay?" Tails asked, finding it weird to question a demon's welfare.

**"Ughhh, It's just all this going back and forth that I've been doing. I feel like I've been tossed around like a bag of fuzzy tangerines."**

"I thought since I found your jinchuuriki, I should ask you what I'm supposed to do now."

**"It's going to take time to teach you the technique that is required to free me. The problem is that Naruto is in one of those moods,**" Kyuubi chuckled. **"That pathetic mortal. He's only going to get himself killed with his attitude. I'm going** **to need to watch over him. If he dies now before we can undo the seal, everything will be over. Oh, and you'll die too of course,"** Kyuubi added with an ominous laugh that faded away as the burning chakra dimmed.

"Wha? He left again. Man, what a weird kitsune. How could he laugh about something like that?"

"Tails?" a gentle hand came down on the fox's shoulder

"You all right, buddy?" Sonic asked. "You look kinda spaced out."

"It-it's nothing. Just nervous I guess."

"Interesting," Orochimaru thought, fixing his amber eyes on Tails for a moment. "If Naruto is still alive, that must mean his seal is still working and I can tell that the Kyuubi is still trapped inside him. If the Kyuubi uses that kitsune to break free, it'll just make more trouble for me. If I kill Naruto now, all these foxes will be out of my hair for good and that'll will also put me a step ahead of the Akatsuki."

"Don't look away, Orochimaru," Naruto demanded. "Where is Sasuke?"

I knew you'd ask that question. If you want the answer just take a look at the crowd friends over there," Orochimaru gestured towards the other shinobi. "Tell me if you see anything interesting."

Naruto carefully glanced over the beach where he saw all his friends banded together. In the midst of the group...

His appetite having been killed, Naruto's chopsticks seemed to fall out of his hands in slow motion. An aura that he was all too familiar with was beaming from the two talied kitsune. "I saw him before. That impression he's giving off. What is it?"

Various different plans ran through Shikamaru's head as well as Kakashi's. As difficult an opponent as Orochimaru was, he was outnumbered severely which counted for something. There were a number of ways the genius nin's could have organized a way to use all their friends to counter his abilities. Unfortunately, all those plans were dashed when Shikamaru had to account for some new factors.

* * *

Shadows cast themselves over the skyline of Station Square. The sound of rockets thundered in the skies. The sands flew from the ground into a fearsome sandstorm. The waters quivered with the rhythmic marching of metallic feet. The Egg Carrier descended from the sky. From the ground came an army of robotic soldiers, everything from swatbots to eggbots, and the all the E-series robots going all the way up to the hulking Omega bots. All of them were equipped with accessorized laser rifles and missile cannons.

"Sonic the Hedgehog! Why am I not surprised to see you here?" Robotnik glowered at the hedgehog from the deck of his ship.

Sonic scoffed at the appearance of the evil doctor "You really know how to crash a party, 'Buttnik!"

"I didn't come here for fun, Hedgehog. I brought my best machines. My best machines! Those emeralds rightfully belong to me and I will vaporize anyone in my way!"

"That is a lot of robots," Sonic whistled to show how impressed he was. "I think I see Mega-Man back there."

"No jokes, Sonic," Robotnik warned. "I'm not in the mood for your insolence."

"Don't look so upset." Sonic said. "You should meet Naruto. I'm telling you, Doc. Wait until you see this guy. If you've ever felt sexually repressed, I promise he can cure it."

"I wonder how long it's been since that man has seen his own dick," Sai commented from the side.

"Keep those thoughts to yourself, Sai," Sakura yelled, nearly on the verge of punching her teammate. "Nobody wants to think such thoughts about that disgusting geezer."

Upon hearing these comments, Robotnik's face went beet red. "How dare you children speak about me that way? Perhaps you don't understand how severely outnumbered and outgunned all of you are?"

While Robotnik was flustered, Deidara circled over the beach on his clay bird like a bird of prey ready for its meal. "Perfect. Nobody has seen me yet," he said to himself proudly. Bringing forth a glowing chunk of red clay in his hands, the artist shaped it into a long, but thin worm and dropped it. "Neither side has made a move, so I guess I should be the one to start things up here. Might as well start small and see how a little bit of this clay will work. Those robots should make a good test."

The clay worm innocently and silently landed on the back of one of Robotnik's vehicles. Being so small and quiet, nobody noticed it crawling into through the ship's crevices.

"I can't wait to see that lardball's reaction," Deidara laughed and held up his fingers. "Katsu!"

Under Deidara's command, the ship blasted apart into a cloud of red dust.

"Who dares destroy my creations?" Robotnik roared as he watched his 'indestructible' weapons get blown to pieces. "Eh, it doesn't matter. I want everybody dead. Kill them all!"

Unseen and unheard by all, Deidara laughed to himself. "Hmmph. I know that I'm only helping those Konoha guys, but I still had to see what those attacks could do these machines. Robotnik's style is just like Sasori's. He doesn't know anything about true art."

Orochimaru gave a frustrated sigh as he watched the army of machines power up their weapons. "It appears that a massive collision is underway. Naruto, I challenge you to face me alone. None of the rest of these insects will be in the way. My sword of Kusunagi against the Yondaime's Sword of Izanagi."

"Bring it on, you old fart," Naruto laughed.

If Naruto was just a little bit faster he would've been able to succeed in slicing Orochimaru's head off with one slide of his katana. Unfortunately, he wasn't that fast. Fast as Naruto was, the sannin was quick enough to flip his sword up in place to clash against Naruto's. Refusing to back down, Naruto rushed forward with his sword in lunge position.

"I hope that Kakashi was really able to teach how to come at your opponent with the intent to kill," Orochimaru remarked as he slid back towards the ocean, distancing his duel with Naruto away from the others.

Sonic knew that Orochimaru and Naruto didn't back away out of cowardice. There was something deeper and personal between those two and they had to be alone to face each other. Still, Sonic was not at all impressed with the snake ninja. "That Orochimaru clown doesn't look so tough," Sonic said, watching Naruto trade blows with him. "I bet I could take him on."

"You don't have time to look away, hedgehog!" Robotnik hollered from the Egg Carrier. "I have my vendetta against these strangers, but you're more important. You are, and always were going to be my kill!"

Even with hundreds of robots preparing to attack, Sonic didn't dare flinch for even a second. "You are just about due for an old fashioned butt whooping yourself, Robotnik," Sonic flashed his signature grin. One that left a mighty impression on Lee. So much so that he gave in to his restless spirit and leapt straight into the middle of the robot army, creating explosions and flying metal with every kick and blow.

"We might as well join him," Neji stated calmly. Tenten nodded and they too jumped in to join their partner. Neji with his arms glowing with blue fire, Tenten swinging a powerful steel chain. "Kaiten!" (Divine Whirl) Neji screamed spilling his chakra out of every pore of his body, deflecting the barrage of laser fire and sending a horde of swatbots flying into the air.

"Gai, I can tell that your team has grown well," Kakashi murmured to himself as he watched his rival's students wade into battle.

"Kakashi," Yamato asked, interrupting his senpai's thoughts. "What are your orders?"

"Huh? Well, obviously, Orochimaru is our real danger. Robotnik is a just a nuisance. We just need to thin out the numbers of those robots. Yamato, you need to keep an eye on Tails. Ino, you need to take care of Gaara and Shadow's wounds. Neither of them should even think about fighting. Shino, I doubt your bugs will be too useful against these machines, except for disrupting their vision. I want you to stay back and act as surveillance for anything that might be unusual.

"Understood," Shino nodded in agreement. "This is more of Kiba's expertise, I believe."

"You're damn right it is!" Kiba shouted boisterously. "Come on, Akamaru. Let's kick the crap out of these tin cans," he shouted again as he and Akamaru ran after Team Gai.

"Hinata, you have the most important job of all," Kakashi instructed. "Keep those chaos emeralds as close to you as possible. Pakkun has warned me that an Akatsuki member is close by. Keep those gems safe."

Nodding to Kakashi's orders, the ninjas scattered in all different directions, covering as much ground as they could.

"Shadow, you can't be caught in the middle of this. You'll be killed," Sakura cried and grabbed Shadow's hand, dragging along the beach, dodging laser fire. "You need medical care. I'm drained of chakra, but Ino can still help you," she said bringing Shadow to the blonde kunoichi clad in purple.

Ino was already hard at work applying her chakra to Gaara's wounds. While it was too hard for Gaara to use his sand offensively, he managed to create an impenetrable shield of sand to protect Ino and Shadow.

"Hey, Shadow. I know you're probably not up for fighting," Rouge said while knocking on Gaara's sand sphere. "But I thought maybe you could help us out by improving our arsenal?"

"You mean you want some guns?"

Rouge smiled and nodded her head vigorously.

"Knock yourself out," with a casual wave of his hand, Shadow used his remaining chaos control abilities to teleport in a whole rack of various firearms. While the Konoha shinobi paid no attention to the new weapons, Rouge helped herself to as many guns as she could carry.

"Feh," Kiba scoffed at the rack of guns. "Who needs fancy junk like that? We'll show those hi-tech geeks how it's done. Right, Akamaru?"

"Arf!" Akamaru complied.

**"Garouga!" (Double Wolf Fang) **Kiba gave a fearsome shout, making his features grow eve wilder. Akamaru jumped into the air and flickered out of sight.

Robotnik frowned when he witnessed nothing but human hands crush the hardest metals apart. "Despite their powers, most of these fools are injured. Especially Shadow. That means I should still have the advantage and…," Robotnik's jabbering was interrupted by soft droplets pouring down onto the Egg Carrier. "Is it raining?" Heavier droplets of rain started to spray all his face. Normally, Robotnik enjoyed the atmosphere that a good rainstorm could bring, but this time the rain felt so…warm. Soon enough, a huge downpour pounded the deck of the Egg Carrier. Two things bothered Robotnik about the weather. One thing was that it seemed to be raining only on top of the airship, and second, when the rain continued to spray across his face, soaking his mustache, he felt an unpleasant burning sensation on his skin. "Is this some kind of acid rain?

Poofing back into sight, the great white dog landed on the dog with a thunderous growl.

Upon sensing a salty, but bitter taste on his tongue, Robotnik realized what had just happened. This isn't acid rain," his eyes widened in horror. "It's…"

"So you finally figured it out," Kiba flickered in next to his dog, a mischievous grin running across his painted face.

"You pissed on me!" Robotnik shouted, shaking his fists in fury. "What the hell is wrong is wrong with you?"

"Dynamic Marking," Kiba answered, "And that was just setting up." Getting on his dog's back, Kiba brought his hands together to complete the seal. **"Inuzuka Style Man-Beast Morph! Sotoro!" (Double Headed Wolf)** A giant, snarling, white beast with two heads emerged from a cloud of smoke. They snarled at Robotnik, thick saliva dripping from their mouths. Their wild eyes glared down at the fat doctor.

"What kind of monsters are you?" Robotnik backed away, nearly slipping off the edge of his ship. "Stop them!" He ordered his E-123 Omega bots. The elite guardian robots powered up their Omega Fire guns, but the twin-headed beast wolf turned itself into a deadly tornado of white fur and ripped through the machines like paper, tearing through the airships hull. The monsters massive attack blew apart the entire Egg Carrier. Robotnik kept his life only when his Eggmobile caught him and flew him to safety. The airship, reduced to a smoldering fireball crash landed on top of a hundred or so swatbots, reducing their numbers significantly for the others. Out of the flaming crash site, Kiba and Akamaru emerged, reverted to normal form, unscathed, but exhausted.

"Damn, that felt good," Kiba said with a satisfied sigh. He and Akamaru plopped their backs onto the sand, trying to catch their breaths. "Our chakra's spent, but we did our thing. The rest of the team can take it from here."

Dr. Robotnik went through the calculations a hundred times in his head and he still couldn't figure it out. How did everything fall apart so easily? He had no intention of starting a war until these ninjas invaded his city and nearly killed him over the chaos emeralds. "Yes, the chaos emeralds. I must get them back if I want to regain my power." Taking back Orochimaru's chaos emeralds was out of the question, but one of those do-gooder ninjas had to be protecting the other gems. A few seconds on the Egg-o-matic's chaos sensors and he found three emeralds in the possession of one shinobi. The doctor took a moment to study his target. As luck would have it, three chaos emeralds were being kept by weakest looking kunoichi in the bunch. While she had the same white eyes as the fearsome Hyuuga Neji, those eyes didn't gleam with the same hint of power. The only force Robotnik ever truly responded to.

"Perfect," his mustache curled around a greedy smirk.

At the push of a button, Robotnik sent forth a long tentacle from the Egg-o-matic's carapace. Ending with a pair of grasping pincers, Robotnik shot forth his tentacle where it latched around Hinata's neck, lifting her off the ground.

"Muahahahahaha!" the mad doctor laughed triumphantly as he flailed Hinata's body in the air. "That was too easy, my dear." Another tentacle arm revealed itself. "I'm not going to bargain with you for your life and ask you to drop your chaos emeralds. I'm simply going to pull out your heart and pry the emeralds off your lifeless fingers. After all the misfortune I've suffered today, I suppose it was just my luck that I could take the emeralds from a weak and useless ninja girl."

"N-no," Hinata squeaked. "I'm not weak." With a kunai in hand, Hinata thrashed to get free and slashed at the tentacle that held her.

"You will only make this worse," Robotnik said as he tightened the tentacle's grip, placing intense pressure to Hinata's neck.

Hinata wanted to cry as she felt that her head was about to be cut off. She tasted the blood that started to trickle down her mouth.

"Hmmm, instead of killing you, perhaps I should just peel out those beautiful white eyes," the doctor mused and raised another tentacle into her face. Its claws bared themselves and readied dig through flesh. "If they have some special abilities, I might be able to make use of it."

"What are you doing? Stop!" Robotnik, who knew nothing about the Hyuuga clan's use of Jyuuken, couldn't fathom that the white eyed girl would send her chakra through the machine's electrical systems, manipulating it and forcing the mechanisms to short circuit.

Hot beads of sweat rolled down Robotnik's bald head as he struggled to escape the Egg-o-matic before the overload of electrical bolts and sparks blew the round flying machine exploded into fiery fragments. Both Robotnik and Hinata plopped onto the soft sands. While the plump doctor struggled to regain his balance, Hinata easily threw the now lifeless tentacles off her body and delivered a crippling strike into Robotnik's chest with a hand wreathed in blue chakra.

Dr. Robotniik coughed a mess of blood from his mouth and lifted his head upward to see the Hyuuga girl standing over him, this time, an intense stare locked down on him. Her stare was so hard that he could see the veins tightening around the girl's eyes.

"Wait," Robotnik pleaded. "You wouldn't harm an innocent old man, would you?"

Pinpointing Robotnik's tenketsu points, Hinata jabbed at the most vital ones that joined with the heart and lungs.

"You're not innocent," Hinata said as she relaxed her Bayakagun and watched the fat man's body crumple to the sand. "You're just a weak and sad old man."

"But…, I'm the god of this world," he tried to reach out with his arm in one last futile attempt to take the emeralds, where it flopped back down and laid still.

"Dr. Robotnik has been defeated. Now that their troublesome master is gone, the remaining robots will be too unfocused to be a real threat," Shikamaru said, "That means we can relax soon."

"Is that all you can think about? It's still a fight out there," Temari said, brandishing her heavy tessan. "Are you gonna join before it's over or what?"

"Heh," Shikamaru smirked and pulled out a pair of trench knives. "I forgot that you've never seen how I really fight."

The lazy nin dove into the melee with surprising speed, decapitating robots left and right. Temari followed through smashing the machines with heavy fan strikes. If there's anything Shikamaru should have labeled as troublesome, wading into a battle with his taijutsu skills against killer robots should've been at the top of the list, but the way Temari watched him made it all worthwhile.

"I never would've guessed you could actually do stuff like that," Temari said, flashing him a smile.

"It's troublesome, but I'm quickly getting the hang of these trench knives. Once I can find my element and master nature manipulation, I might be able to do something that's actually useful."

Back to back, Shikamaru and Temari fought through the hordes of enemy robots. When it looked like the mechs were closing in fast, Temari opened her fan and released a gust of wind to scatter them away. Shikamaru didn't even need to come up with any complex plans. Everyone was so well equipped to fighting these robots. If only he had calculated the coming of Akatasuki.

"Let's see now," Deidara counted his options on his fingers. "I bet that a single bomb will kill that little kitsune, but I don't want to do that. It's just my rotten luck to have Orochimaru duke it out with the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, too. Hmmm. There's still that the blue hedgehog. He should be entertaining."

Following Sonic's streaking blue blur with his scope, Deidara spit up another mass of clay from his hands and molded them together.

Unaware of the attacker above, Sonic continued to dash freely towards Tails, leaving a trail of demolished robots in his wake.

"You're doing good, 'bro. I think we're winning," Sonic said, watching as Tails used his skills at two-tailed fighting against the robots.

"Yeah, but do you think Naruto can beat Orochimaru?" Tails asked.

"Who knows? I still say I could tie the guy's own tongue around him. In fact I—"

"Hey, wait a sec," Tails held up a hand to his ear as his keen fox senses picked up a distinctive noise.

"What's up, Tails? You hear somethin'?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't sound like any of Blubberbutt's bots. It sounds kinda like you when you're running."

Several small red streaks came speeding from across the dunes straight for Sonic. Only when they started to circle around him, did he see through the blurs.

Little clay hedgehogs.

Aside from the red color, they resembled Sonic perfectly, even his sneakers and signature smile was there. Deidara, an artist who believed that true art was only in the moment, never gave time for anybody to really view his art, and so he already brought his fingers together and spoke the command.

"Katsu!" Not knowing what to expect, Sonic did and instant spin dash, narrowly getting out of range of the clay bombs. Their blasts threw Sonic scattered the sands and threw Sonic across the beach where he landed softly on the dunes.

"Ha. I knew that with the help of all that chaos energy, I could give my art the ability to move at super speed. These would've been perfect to use on Sasuke if he hadn't croaked so suddenly," Deidara bragged and threw another handful of clay mini-Sonics that performed their own spin dashes. There's no way you can escape for long,"

"The creep's right. Running is not gonna work here. I've got only got one chance. It has to be timed perfectly," At the last possible millisecond, Sonic curled himself into a perfect spherical ball of cerulean and red streaks. At the exact moment that Deidara uttered his 'Katsu,' a flash of brilliant white light surrounded Sonic for an instant and in that moment, the force of the explosions bounced right off harmlessly.

"An insta-shield? I didn't know you could do that," Deidara hovered lower to Sonic. There was more intrigue in his voice than anger. "What else can you do?"

"So you're the guy who sent those hedgehog bombs after me?"

"Oh, yeah! And I've got a lot more crazy things to show you. Since Robotnik's army is done with, I thought it was time to reveal myself."

"Tails, stay away from him. Look at his cloak. He's from the Akatsuki."

"That's an Akatsuki guy? Hey, Sonic!" Tails shouted excitedly. "Let's capture this guy so then can he lead us to Itachi."

"That wasn't really the response I expected," Kakashi sighed.

"Hold up," Sonic looked around, confused. "What's an Akatsuki? Who's Itachi? Why are these guys after you, Tails?"

"Does that matter now?" Knuckles angrily interrupted. "That guy up there is trying to blow you up with his crummy clay explosives! Just take him out already."

"Hey, are you criticizing my art style?" Deidara turned towards the echidna.

Tension rose into the air as Knuckles and the Deidara matched angry glares against each other.

"Yeah, I did. You wanna make something of it?"

Deidara burst out laughing. "I want to make something of you. When I'm done rearranging that stupid face of yours, you'll learn to appreciate my unique art style."

"Oh, I'll give you something to appreciate!" Knuckles retorted and spread out his dreadlocks to fly through the air.

"He flies. How unexpected," Deidara chuckled, watching the echidna spread out his dreadlocked quills and take to the air.

Because of Temari's raging winds, Knuckles found it all the more easy glide at his best speed straight for the white clay bird where the black robed ninja sat.

"He's a strong close range fighter from what I've seen. I can't let him get too near," Deidara cautioned himself and threw a clay bird to intercept the echidna. "Don't attack me so foolishly, assface!" he yelled and set the bird to detonate. Knuckles dodged the worst of the explosions, but it the force threw him off his flight path, leaving him spinning uncontrollably in the air.

"Ha! You're too thick headed to understand art, un," Deidara grinned widely and spat out a fresh new batch of clay form his hands. "But maybe you can still act as some inspiration."

Releasing the clay from his hands, a small swarm of little red echidnas, complete with tough clawed fists that swarmed around Knuckles. Each one punched at him and slammed into him with surprising strength.

"The power of chaos easily added super speed to my clay, so why not strength?"

"When Deidara is done toying with Knuckles, he'll make them all explode," Kakashi warned grimly. "That's how Deidara works. Rouge, if you're not too angry at him, maybe you should—"

"Way ahead of you," Rouge waved and soared into the sky, snatching Knuckles.

"You can't escape magnificent art!" Deidara cried and sent the Knuckles bombs to glide after them.

"Damn! Those little Knuxie bombs are still following us. How do we get rid of them?"

"Hehe, this whole scene reminds me a lot of how I was able to give the Kazekage a good blast," Deidara called out. "I had to work hard not to kill him, but maybe after you guys are all dead, I'll blast the sand shrimp apart once and for all."

Temari clenched her fingers around her tessan so tightly, she nearly dented the metal. Finally encountering the guy that captured her brother and was now trying to kill everybody was enough to make her snap. She felt her blood rush through her as violently as the winds she created.

"Amy," Temari turned to the pink hedgehog. "The strength of your hammer works well with the power of my winds."

"What?" Amy asked nervously. "You want me to go through that again?"

"I can kill this guy and destroy those bombs, but I can't make a direct attack or I'll end up slicing your friends to ribbons. I'm going to need your help," Teamri explained. "Jump on top of my fan. You're going to fly up there."

Looking up, Amy grimaced to see that her friends were in serious jeopardy.

"Hey, Rouge. I thought you'd leave to me to die because of Sakura," Knuckles managed a smile through his bruised face.

"Knuxie, we all know you have zero chance with Sakura. Besides, we're in the middle of a war. It would be very childish of me to be upset about those things when we're so close to getting killed."

"I will begin," Temari announced. "Kaze Kuroi Teikiatsu!" (Wind Element: Dark Cyclone) Raising her fan to its fullest extent, Temari waved the tessan around and around, creating a huge spinning cyclone.

"A-are you sure this is going to work," Amy asked nervously staring into the fierce cyclone.

"Why not? You've done this before, haven't you?"

"Yeah, but that time I was moving in a straight line. This time, I'm gonna be spinning around and what if those bombs do go off before I get away or—"

"Amy," Sonic said behind her and gently placed his hand on her shoulder. "Just chill and you'll do fine."

"Okay," she nodded and brandished her Piko piko hammer. "Let's go!"

Having whipped her fan into an enormous frenzy, Temari released a tornado as big as her chakra would allow.

Backed by the incredible force of the winds, Amy was flung high into the sky, rocketing straight along the path of Knuckles, Rouge, and Deidara's bombs. Screaming as loud as she could while she flew, Amy had no idea how fast she was going, but she had her target in her sight. Straining to keep her eyes barely open in the biting winds, Amy set back her hammer. The red and yellow hammer flashed with a pink aura that grew brighter the faster she flew. Giving one of her heaviest swings, she knocked the clay echidnas far away and out of sight with the epic blow.

"No!" Deidara screamed in rage. "What kind of hammer is that?"

"She did it, Knux," Rouge exclaimed with relief. "We're safe."

"All that's left is to nail that Akatsuki guy," Knuckles said.

"Leave that to me," Rouge let her hands go. She reached for the sniper on her back and took aim.

Too distracted by the sight of the pink hedgehog and her hammer, Deidara had no time to react when Rouge fired her gun.

"Aww, shit!"

The sniper's piercing bullet ran right through Deidara's arm, sending him tumbling off his bird as blood splurted from his open wound.

"I got him" Rouge cheered in triumph and floated back to the ground along with Amy. "You did great Amy," she tossed her gun aside and threw her arms around her female friend. "Thanks to you, Knuckie and I are still alive!"

"I-I need to go," she said in a queasy voice and hobbled away, covering her mouth the whole time.

Meanwhile, Shadow held his ear to the sand wall. Listening for any developments. "It got a lot quieter out there. Let me out of this sand shell so I can see what's going on," Shadow ordered.

"That's not a good idea," Ino shook her head. "You need more time to recuperate."

"Forget that. I need to know what's going on."

"Very well," Gaara said and undid his jutsu. As soon the ball of sand vanished, Shadow sped off. Indeed, Robotnik's army was fully devastated. Not being sure what he expected to find, he carelessly bumped into Amy, who

"Amy?" Shadow stared quizzically at the pink hedgehog, who was quickly mutating into a sickly shade of green right before his eyes. "Are-are you all right?"

"Blearrrghhh!" Shadow took a quick step back to keep his shoes away fromt the unspekable stuff thst spewed forth from Amy's mouth.

"Hmm, it seems that I missed out on a lot. What happened, faker? Did you kiss her?"

"Actually, you missed the whole thing," Sonic chuckled. "Thanks to Amy, we took out one of those Akatsuki people."

"Akatsuki? Those guys that are after Tails?"

"Huh? Hey," Sonic shot Tails a suspicious look. "You never said they were coming her for you, big guy."

Tails opened his mouth to speak, but still tried to look for the right words_. "What should I say to him? This organization wants to capture the great tailed beasts and I happen to be hosting the biggest and baddest of them all? I wish I knew where the Kyuubi went. He's been disappearing on me all morning._ Well, ummm…it's kind of hard to explain why they actually want to capture me."

"Dynamic Entry!" an energetic and youthful cry resounded in Sonic's ears, interrupting what he was about to say. Only a second later did he saw a green blur fly right over where his head would have been if he didn't duck.

"Can't have a single conversation without somebody trying to kick me in the head," Sonic groaned inwardly ,then shouted at the attacker in green spandex who had the most horrendous bowl cut he had ever seen on either human or Mobian. "What the heck was that about? I thought you were on my side!"

"As expected, I knew someone of your legendary speed would easily dodge my kick," Lee replied with a respectful bow. "Even Gai-sensei would have difficult keeping up with you."

"Did you really jump in just to tell me that?"

"Not at all," Lee said as his face took on a much more serious expression. "Sonic the Hedgehog, we have detained your eternal nemesis and crushed his forces."

"Eternal nemesis? I never thought of ol' Buttbolts like that, but yeah, thanks for the help. Anyways, Hinata," he ran over to the Hyuuga girl. "Can I hang on to those emeralds for awhile?

"O-okay? But why?"

"I'm going after Orochimaru."

* * *

Out on the ocean, Naruto fiercely fought with his sword against Orochimaru's out on the surface of the waters.

"Let's play around with a couple jutsus while we're at this. Just to make it more fun," Orochimaru said in a darkly playful voice and wriggled his free hand with a certain seal.** "Koori no Tanjou no Jutsu," (Birth of Ice)** The currents and the ocean waves started to slow their movements and the surface took a crystalline sheen as it froze into hard and solid. "Have you ever fought on a smooth plane of ice? It's interesting," Orochimaru smirked and slid across the ice field while he strode forward with the Kusunagi, its metallic blade flashing in the reflective light of the crystalline ice.

Naruto's blade connected with the sannin's with a loud ring of metal. The two pushed their swords against each other while using pouring out their chakra to keep themselves standing in the ice. Naruto blocked the sword easily, holding up his own katana horizontally. "I gotta thank Tenten for the extra weapon practice she gave me," Naruto remembered. "If I can just keep ahead of this guy's movements, I can counter them."

"Renzuki!" (same hand strike) Orochimaru cried, catching Naruto off guard by delivering two slashes in one swift motion. Disturbing the blonde ninja's footing, he sent an unexpected kick to Naruto's gut, sending him crashing onto the hard, icy surface.

"Damn," Naruto panted, "those moves are good."

"I'm considered one of the best swordsmen in Fire Country," Orochimaru bragged. "Swordsmanship is such a rare art these days. I doubt that idiotic Jiraiya or anyone else was able to train you well enough to best me. Worst of all, you have no time to form any type of Rasengan you might be able to use."

"Says who?" Naruto shot him a bloody smile. Suddenly, the ice floor shattered with two Narutos bursting from the ice, a fierce Rasengan whirling in their hands.

"Like I said," Orochimaru repeated. "No time." Turning suddenly with his sword ready for a swing, Orochimaru lunged at the Narutos. He swung his sword upward, slicing through Naruto's hand, forcing to burst into smoke. Simultaneously, he lashed out with his tongue and wrapped the other Naruto within, shoving the Naruto clone, along with his Rasengan into the real Naruto.

"No!" Naruto shrieked and desperately pushing his magical sword, his last hope, against the renegade Rasengan. His shouts died away as the spiraling ball of chakra plowed through him, the legendary sword fell to the ice in broken shards, torn to pieces. Naruto's lifeless body collapsed onto the growing puddles of blood Orochimaru retracted his tongue and straightened himself, the Naruto clone having vanished.

"What a waste," the snake sannin muttered in contempt. "You were no where near Sasuke's level."

Orochimaru took a moment to reflect on the jinchuuriki's death before moving on to kill the others. It was so quiet for once. Every encounter with Naruto had always been. He enjoyed this moment of piece. That was, until he heard a hauntingly familiar shout.

"Don't you ever say his name!" another Naruto yelled while leaping from what seemed like out of nowhere. In his hand was larger far larger Rasengan. One that looked far grander and brighter as the orb radiated brighter than the morning sun.

"That was a clone too!" Orochimaru shouted, his golden eyes widened in surprise as the real Naruto strode forwards aiming the enormous Odama Rasengan.

**"Hyouton: Shosaku Hebi no Shimo!" (Bite of the Frost Serpent)"** Orochimaru called, and instantly, a crystalline cobra, formed form the very ice itself slithered beneath Naruto's feet and sank its fangs deep into his leg.

"Guh," Naruto choked and slowed down his stride, feeling his insides starting to stiffen as a rush of bitter cold ran through his blood.

"It's hard to mold chakra when your life blood is frozen, isn't it?" Orochimaru asked snidely. But then, you never were so good at that were you? No thanks to your fox friend.

Naruto tried to summon all his human strength, but all feeling in his limbs was slowly weakening. His arm that he lifted up towards Orochimaru.

"Oh, just die already," Orochimaru sneered and kicked Naruto back down. Holding the Kusunagi katana in his hand, he slashed down at Naruto's chest, tearing his jacket and shirt in half.

With Naruto's bare chest exposed, Orochimaru's amber eyes lit up as he focused on the jinchuuriki's stomach. The spiral seal that locked the Kyuubi inside was still visible. "Just as I thought," Orochimaru relaxed his sword arm and rubbed his chin. "Since you're still alive, the seal remains intact and the Kyuubi is still inside you. Yet, the fox has found a way to siphon his chakra into one of these Mobians. It seemed that we've all underestimated what Kyuubi no Kitsune is really capable of. That's a problem I'm going to be rid of right now."

"Oi, Naruto," Kyuubi called. "I see that something's not good out there. Do me a favor and don't expire on me."

"Shut up, baka fox. I don't need you around anymore. I though you were leaving."

"Heh, what a time to talk like that. It's been fifteen years since I've been stuck with a blockhead like you," Kyuubi sighed. "As long as you're alive, I'm still stuck in you. Remember this, moron. Every breath you take, you owe to me."

"And vice versa."

"Absolutely," Kyuubi nodded. "Believe me, no curse could be worse than this. You'd know that better than anyone, right?

"Do me a favor, since you've got nothing to lose. You really can't beat Orochimaru alone. Every clone you make, he will counter with another technique. Although he thinks he can be immortal, he and you, like all mortals will soon die. I suggest you stop being a wimp about such things and release my power right now. I will destroy Orochimaru for you, and then, just before you die, you can watch as I return back to my glorious place as the greatest of all demons!"

"Shut up! You say the stupidest things! No wonder everybody hates you."

"Maybe humans don't appreciate things like they should. But since you don't want me hanging around you anymore, you should give me up so that I can go and give my power to one of my own kind."

"The two tailed fox?"

"He's not much without my chakra, but only Tails is truly worthy. He needs me and I need him to get back to full power. You're not a real kitsune. You wouldn't understand."

"Are you talking to somebody, Kyuubi boy?" Orochimaru asked. "I can sense that incredible chakra just about to bubble up. The Kyuubi usually tries to come out at stressful times like this, doesn't he?

"Wait," Orochimaru paused his killing hand. "This is the greatest bijuu in existence. I can't just kill it like this. I can soon possess all seven chaos emeralds. I should test them."

"Interesting," Kyuubi muttered. "It seems that this so called 'immortal' devil wants to see me come out. Let's not disappoint him, Naruto."

"Forget it!" Naruto refused and used every ounce of his will to stand up straight and raise his fist. "I'm definitely going to be the future Hokage. I can fight my own fights!"

"Yeah, I heard that you were training to grow without the use of your demonic chakra, but it still has a way of breaking out a little very now and then. If I recall our last encounters, it always happened as soon as Sasuke was involved. You do know that he's dead, don't you?"

All of a sudden, Naruto felt his blood go form freezing to boiling hot in an instant. The red hellish chakra started to bubble up, just as Orochimaru predicted. He felt it bleeding through his fingers, crawling through his teeth, and pouring through his eyes that shifted from blue to red.

"Sasuke…dead?"

"I know I wanted Sasuke badly, but I have other options now thanks to these chaos emeralds," Orochimaru said and summoned four of the emeralds into his presence where they floated and danced in the air, their lights bouncing off his shimmering sword. "This is the reason why you cannot defeat me. Look at them Naruto. These seven crystals are a key to a greater truth. Something greater than Sasuke, and even greater than the Kyuubi. Soon we shall see what wonders we can unlock from them."

"Sasuke's dead all because of you," Naruto said in a low growl. "You'll pay for that."

"Huh? I didn't even tell you who his killer really was."

All of a sudden, two furry appendages swung out and wrapped tightly around Orochimaru's arm, holding the blade away from Naruto.

"Ooooh, this is getting deliciously ironic," Kyuubi said.

"Ahh, I was hoping you would show up again," Orochimaru smiled at Tails. "But this time I don't sense that cursed chakra burning inside you. Shall we see if you can play this game without the Kyuubi's help?"

Tails said nothing. He just got in his battle stance and readied to attack.

**"Senai Ta Jashu, (Hidden Shadow Hand of Many Snakes)** From Orochimaru's arm, nearly a dozen venomous snakes lunged with their huge jaws opened towards Tails. They coiled around the kitsune, wrapping up his tails, arms, and legs, and constricting around his throat . Just as those fangs were about puncture the helpless fox's fur, a flying blue ball rushed over and sliced the snakes apart to shreds. Sonic uncurled his body in midair and landed on top of Orochimaru's blade.

"You're one of the rare people who can get a good view of my shoes," Sonic said and quickly shoved his foot into the surprised sannin's face, sending him sailing across the frictionless ice on his back while the hedgehog effortlessly glided along like an expert ice skater.

"Got here just in time," Sonic uncurled his body and breathed a sigh of relief. "You are all right, big guy?"

"The hedgehog!" Orochimaru sneered at the spinning blue ball and lashed out with his sword that extended itself well beyond its length and twisted a. The next thing he knew, Orochimaru was sliding across the ice on his back. Sonic was also sliding along like an expert ice skater.

"Sending a horde of snakes to put the bite on my little buddy is real low, Oro," Sonic lectured as he skidded to a stop, spraying ice chunks into the sannin's face.

"Heh, don't get so cocky, hedgehog," Orochimaru said, lifting himself back to his feet. "I hold the last three emeralds and those four aren't going to be enough to get me."

"Oh yeah? Well, I can throw these pretty hard."

"Tell me then, hedgehog," Orochimaru said, eying the emeralds. "How does one go about attaining a super form?"

"You wanna go super? You'll need to snag all seven," Sonic said, casually tossing his emeralds up and down in his hands. "That's the only way. And to do that, you'll need to be pretty fast."

"All seven, you say? The servers are the seven chaos. Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart," Orochimaru quoted. "That's the line, right?"

Sonic's smile started to fade. "How…do you know that?"

Sensing the growing fear from the hedgehog, Orochimaru slowly lifted his index finger and pointed it straight to Sonic's eyes. "Perhaps if I enriched them with my own heart."

Orochimaru continued to point his finger and stare at Sonic for a long time. Soon Sonic's emeralds, the blues, the white, ands the red resonated in a deeper, darker light.

**"Chiyokubou no Jutsu (Bloodthirst)** Sonic felt himself get swallowed up by the snake man's eyes. "Take the last emeralds then, hedgehog. They are my gift to you," he said as his three emeralds, green, yellow, and purple, floated to encircle Sonic completing the circle where all seven gems surrounded the hedgehog. "And take with them the enrichment of my own heart."

The seven gems gathered around Sonic and fired their lights up into the heavens, creating a kaleidoscopic storm. The chaos fires raged and crumbled apart the field of ice, returning the ocean back into its original, but now chaotic form.

Orochimaru couldn't suppress the grim smile on his face as he watched the killing intent explode from every pore in the hedgehog's body. At last, the most powerful weapon on Mobius was his to command. His amber eyes glittered in amazement at the sight of an aura of bright light flash through Sonics body, turning him from blue to gold. His eyes went from green to red. It was so easy to see it in his eyes. The emeralds were ready to kill. Sonic was ready to kill.

He was going to kill the first person he would see.

Tails.

"Go ahead and do it, Sonic," Orochimaru motioned towards the little fox. "There's nothing to worry about. After all, he's just a demon."

"Yeah," Sonic nodded in agreement. "Just a demon."

"S-sonic?" Tails barely chocked out the words as he saw his hero rush towards him with murderous intent in his eyes and wrapped warapped his hand arounf the fox's throat. The flashes of golden light stabbed the kitsune's eyes. Even with his eyes closed, light continued to pour through until another light, much darker in comparison came in.. A wall of flame rose up to fill Tails' head, blocking away the shining lights of chaos. Tails sensed right away where the red flame came from. The very instant the name popped into his head, the wall of flaming chakra opened up like a door, beckoning Tails to enter the sealed domain where Kyuubi no Kitsune awaited.

**"Welcome back, kit," **Kyuubi greeted. Naruto also stood in front of the seal. The second time the two were together in the cerebral realm. From the looks of it, Tails just walked into the middle of an argument between the jinchuuriki and his bijuu.

**"Look at the mess we're all in, Naruto,"** Kyuubi bored his gaze back down to the human**. "That smartass Orochimaru used a genjutsu to pour all his murderous intent into the blue boy and now that same intent to kill is being amplified by all seven chaos emeralds. Naruto, Tails life is in danger and you're also going to die at their hands if you don't accept my power,"** Kyuubi said without any hint of trickery.

"I don't care. Orochimaru just wants to test me, that's all." Naruto said, walking away from the cage. "Well, I'm not going to go through with these games anymore. I'll do this my own way."

"Sonic, stop wasting time and kill that kitsune quickly," Orochimaru ordered.

_"Not good,"_ Tails thought_. "Naruto and Kyuubi are feuding while Orochimaru's making Sonic go crazy and sending him at my throat. I feel useless again. Or am I just upset that Kyuubi is ignoring me?"_

Kyuubi tried to stifle his laughter. Tails' thoughts were no secret to him**. "Feeling useless again, Tails? Don't worry. I know the feeling. I never thought I'd know what it felt like, but being sealed in a cage for years will do that to you. That's why I won't let you die."**

Naruto froze in his tracks. "The foxes are talking to each other?"

**"Turning your back on me, Naruto?"** Kyuubi's feral eyes returned to Naruto.** "Why don't you turn around and face me?"**

Naruto ignored the kitsune and kept on walking, **"You never could understand the bond we share. You think that just because I'm in here and you're out there that I can't do anything?"**

Suddenly, Tails' two tails started to twist on their own, followed by his arms and legs, compelling him to break from Super Sonic's grip and fly up. All of a sudden, Tailks' body was no longer his own. Both insdie and outside the Kyuubi's seal. "The Kyuubi," Tails strained just to keep his own thoughts his own. "He can control me." Losing every last part of his body, Tails leapt in front of Naruto and struck him hard in his face with a tail, sending Naruto flying back and straight through the bars of the seal.

A wave of horror swept over Tails as he saw the Kyuubi with his gleaming eyes drawing a claw towards Naruto. Worst of all, it was all his fault "I didn't just do that. I was forced to…You! You controled me!"

**"I know. Having you on the outside really helps me overcome my handicap this time. What? Did you think you would always get to be in control?"**

With Naruto in his reach, Kyuubi clasped his monstrous hands together. Tails cringed when his ears picked the sound of something being crushed inside the giant kitsune's paws.

**"Yesss, who's the baka fox now, my little host? Tails is my link to the outside world. Why, with him, I was even able to kill Sasuke."**

"It was you?" Naruto desperately tried to break free of the demon's fiery grasp. "Why…?

**"Why? Because…," **Kyuubi's voice went softer. **"I too, am a shinobi, and so I also have my own way of the ninja."**

"Kyuubi! Stop!" Tails cried. "You're gonna kill him! Give me your chakra again. I can take it."

"**No, kit. You are too weak. Besides, I can't let you be responsible for killing your best friend."**

Naruto howled in pain as the shroud of chakra covered him, tearing the skin off his flesh and forcing his own blood to spill forth and transform into the darkest fire Sonic and Tails had ever seen. Even Super Sonic had to cover his arms over his face to protect himself form the gut ripping winds of chakra.

It was witnessed across the entire countryside to the Mystic Ruins and beyond.

A pillar of dark chakra blasted towards the sky. The blood red fires were hot, but Tails felt no burn while he stood amidst them. Turning his widened eyes to the source of the fiery maelstrom, he saw Naruto, his bloody human form twisting in extreme pain, until the shroud of chakra tore through him, killing and healing at the same time until the human was gone and was replaced by a large fox with four tails.

"Kyuubi? Naruto?"

The four tailed kitsune gave no answer. Only a vicious roar came from its fanged mouth. In front of Tails was Naruto, transformed into another kitsune with double the tails, taken over by the raging fires of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Behind Tails stood a being of equal power, his best bud and hero, Super Sonic, now just a slave to the will of Orochimaru.

Deidara didn't have to look to the ocean to know that something serious was brewing down there. He lurched back to his feet and tried to move until a red echidna jumped in and beat him down.

"Don't try anything, jerk," Knuckles warned. "You're losing a lot of blood."

"You retards. I nearly lost my arm thanks to you!" Deidara shouted.

Knuckles grabbed Deidara by the collar of his cloak and pulled him close to his face. "You're gonna lose your head soon if I don't get some answers out of you. What's with throwing those bombs, huh? Are you working for Orochimaru?"

As intense and angry as Knuckles' face was, Deidara ignored it and turned towards the ocean where the intense chakra force was exploding. "What an incredible sensation! It's not just the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, but that hedgehog just activated all seven chaos emeralds. It's making the chaos energy in my own body react to it."

"Look at me when I'm talking to you, blondie!" Knuckles demanded.

"Heh, I don't have time to deal with little animals like you," Deidara said and swiftly jumped away from Knuckles' fists. "It's time for me to catch some really big monsters. And for big monsters like these, you need really big explosives, un!"

Deidara's shoulder wound continued to run blood through his cloak and down his arm. Opening up the palm of his hand, his tongue licked up all the blood it could reach.

"An artist like myself is constantly struck by inspiration. Mmmmm…" Deidara said as his tongue lapped up his own blood. "A little blood and clay should mix well together." With his other hand, he scooped a chunk of clay, glowing red with chaos, and compressed it in between his hands. "This work of art is going to be much worse than a C2 or C4 bomb. I don't even know how dangerous it will be."

A large poof of billowing white smoke filled the air, Throwing Knuckles into a coughing fit. Squinting his eyes to see, he could only make out a giant reddish form hiding in the mist.

"I thought it was about time I added some color to my art," Deidara laughed. "Behold…"

From out of the cloud emerged the biggest dragon Knuckles and Rouge had ever seen. Its shimmering, crimson scales radiated with the power of chaos. Blood slowly dripped from in between its serrated teeth.

"Run, Knuxie!" Rouge cried out. The echidna nodded and the two scattered into the air.

"No time to chase those worms. I need to go fight the Kyuubi now," Deidara said as he hopped on top of the dragon's head. Following the wishes of its creator, the red dragon flapped its massive bat like wings and flew off towards the sea where two super powered beings locked their boiling red gazes against each other.

"All right, Kyuubes," Super Sonic said, facing the four tailed beast. "Let's dance."

**To Be Continued in Chapter 11. Characters that didn't get much screentime this chapter will likely be more involved next chapter. Until next time, review and check out some fanart in my profile.**


	11. A Battle between Monsters

**Time for another up-diddly-update with the next chapter-ino! Welcome to the next chappie!**

**azngirlchibi: Oh, wow! Somebody's happy about the long chapters? I've been hearing a lot of mixed opinions about chapter length, so that's always good to know.**

**TheShamanMaster: I have a feeling that Kishimoto is a Sonic fan for some reason. Man, that would be mad cool if this stuff could get animated by him.**

**feathersOfMemories: Thanks:D**

**Blue Mage Quartet: Eggman's fate will be revealed soon. He's still alive as Hinata isn't so quick to kill.**

**Zohaku: Now that Deidara isn't around in the manga so much anymore, things are going to be pretty different. I don't want to kill him off so soon, so he will be getting into many more fights. There will be many more surprises in store for him.**

**rikku92: Silver's a good idea, but I'm not ready to put him in just yet. He would be really helpful. I'm thinking about when to put him in**

**captain deoxys: All I can say is keep an eye out for Dark Super Sonic. Also stay tuned for the big battle of Shadow vs. Tsunade!**

**Angelus-alvus: Thanks so much.**

**Dragon Man 180: Yup, Naruto's been having a tough time lately, but things should start to look up for him soon. Anyways, thanks for the constructive crits. It was helpful.**

**Boom the Hedgehog: Actually, the stuff you mentioned is very relevant to the plot, now that I think about it. Thanks for bringing it up!"**

**Lycropath: You're probably right about Hinata, but still, she was about to get killed. Good call on the Deidara vs. Sai battle of the artists. That's coming up soon. Too bad it'll never happen in the manga.**

**Soul Teller: I know I take a long time with these things, but I hope you found some good stories in the meantime. This is a pretty big site. Take a look at my faves list for some good ones.**

**Kilatails: Sorry I couldn't update sooner, but read on to see what happens!**

**TC chan: I don't know if there'll be a mass culling, maybe just a little bit of culling. Itachi's coming really soon and so is Team Hebi. I've started to really like those guys. The Kabuto idea's pretty funky. Don't think about too much. Kyuubi, what's the jutsu to heal brain damage? Kyuubi: Mmmph! He can't talk! Peanut Butter Ramen's stuck to the roof of his mouth!**

**oOo-Kaede Higuchi-oOo: I think you'll like this one because Kyuubi and Oro-chan are so going down!**

**Nameless: Yes. They will be here in a couple of chapters.**

**Chapter XI: A Battle between Monsters**

"Art, in its true essence comes from that first flash of creativity in the artist's brain. That single, original spark that can grow to become as big as the brightest explosions is the source of all real art, mmm."

Deidara might as well have been preaching to the entire world as he went into what looked like what would be a long speech about the meaning of art and explosions while he stood atop the dragon that flapped its great wings higher into the sky. He flew higher until he felt he had just the right viewpoint to marvel at the sight of Sonic and Naruto manifesting their explosive auras.

"Look at how much inspiration can come from those two! Last time I saw the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, he had two tails. In a short time, it's now doubled the amount. Mix that together with all seven chaos emeralds…it's like opening a wellspring of beauty and inspiration."

"Why don't you open up a wellspring of shut the hell up?" Knuckles shouted at Deidara, shaking his fists in rage.

"Man, you're a jerk," Deidara shook his head. "I know I have more important things to do, but letting someone as dull and shallow as you live makes me want to puke. Guys like you have no sense of aesthetics. You're a crime against art!"

"Yeah? And what are you gonna do about it?"

"I'll start by blasting you to hell, where maybe then you'll stop and appreciate the raw heat of a fiery explosion!"

"Knuckles," Rouge turned sharply towards the echidna. "Please don't fight this time. It's not going to do us any good."

"I'm distracting him. No way can I let him get close to those emeralds."

"Distraction?" Deidara snarled as the red dragon opened its mouth wide and belched out an enormous ball of magma. "In exactly fifteen seconds, I promise I will already have all those rocks while you'll be a pile of smoldering ash."

With the dark ball of fire and molten earth reflecting in their eyes, Knuckles and Rouge swooped lower. The ball flew over them, continuing downwards where it impacted with the sand with a huge explosion, sending brimstone into the air and rivers of lava flowing along the ground.

"Follow me, Rouge," Knuckles ordered while pounding his fists into the sand. "The only way out of this is to dig."

Deidara liked to boast, but he never lied. If he said he was going to destroy his enemies and steal the emeralds in his allotted time frame, he meant it. At his command, the dragon opened its jaws, letting the molten fire drool from its mouth, pouring over its sharp fangs. A black red orb of magma erupted from the creature's volcanic throat and hurled itself towards Deidara's intended victims. Its size and speed guaranteed a spectacular explosion.

Out of nowhere, a wave of sand swirled around the bat and the echidna, creating a protective shroud. The fiery orb impacted hard into the living sand, exploding into a rain of fire. The air rippled as it rose a thousand degrees hotter in seconds. The flow of lava melted the sand down into a flat sheet of glass. Looking through the red hot glass, Deidara saw the face of Sabaku no Gaara.

"The Kazekage!" Deidara let out an anguished cry. "I killed you already. Coming back to life is a mockery of art! Even the most beautiful things in the world can't last forever. Dead people should stay dead. Especially, if I'm the one that killed you. Remember that, sand shrimp! I killed you!"

"I killed you," the words were repeated from the rumbling mouth of the fiery dragon.

Gaara folded his arms and kept the same stoic expression even as the dragon lowered its face to get up close and personal. Even as the dragon flexed its claws and shattered the glass, the only movement from Gaara came from his coat blowing in the hot winds.

"Don't you have anything to say?" Deidara asked with a wild look in his eyes and a crazy smile to match it. "You're going to die in the flashiest way once and for all!"

While Deidara kept on talking, the dragon's mouth opened wider where another explosive magma bomb emerged from its throat.

"Leave Gaara-sama alone!" Amy yelled and swung her piko piko hammer hard against the dragon's face. The monster swerved its head from the force of the blow while it chocked on its own breath attack. Amy leapt up and swung into its mouth again, cracking apart a dozen fangs.

"There's no way that's an ordinary hammer," Deidara said in quiet amazement. "When I kill her, I'll bring it to the Leader and we'll find out the source of its power."

"Senpai," Tobi ran to stand beside his partner. "You look like you're having a hard time. Do you want me to help?"

"No. In fact we're done wasting time here. Come on, Tobi, we're going after the jinchuuriki, un."

Tobi took one look down the beach where Naruto, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki stood in his four tailed form against Sonic the Hedgehog in his golden super form. The combined might of their chakras and energies split the ocean itself in half, forming walls of standing water to surround them. Tobi's sole seeing eye was forced to close itself or risk being blinded by the radiant lights.

"S-senpai, are you sure it's a good idea to go over there?"

"It's our mission! Of course it's a good idea. These artless losers are wasting our time trying to prevent us from reaching our goal, but I'm tired of getting worked up over these insects."

"Quit talking tough!" Knuckles raised his fists indignantly. "I eat insects for breakfast!"

Deidara gave the echidna a vacant stare.

"It's true," Rouge sighed. "He does."

Sweat dropping and dumbstruck faces came from everyone within in an earshot. Especially Shino, he slowly stepped away from the echidna.

"You like bugs, eh? Then eat this," Deidara launched a creeping swarm of clay locusts on the attack.

"You're such a creepy guy, Senpai," Tobi said.

"Tobi! Less yapping, more running! We're out of here now!" Deidara ordered, leading the way on his dragon. Nodding nervously, Tobi sped off towards the Kyuubi.

"They're getting away," Gaara said. "We can't let Deidara reach Naruto. Anyone who can fly must chase after him."

"That's us, Knuckie," Rouge said. Let's get him."

"I too will fly after the bastard," Temari declared and hopped on the opened full three star length of her tessan.

Hearing the rush of a sudden gale behind him, Deidara looked below to see Knuckles, Rouge, and Temari. "They're coming after me," Deidara tsked in annoyance. "There's nothing artistic about continuing to fight such a disgruntled group."

"No, but perhaps this fight will be," Deidara sensed the presence that cast its giant shadow over him. Chewing up some more clay, he watched the new enemy reveal itself from a cloud. A serpentine green dragon with a shinobi rider on top swept past him with such force that the high winds nearly blew the coat right off Deidara's back. He could tell from its appearance that it was created from a jutsu, much like his own. A creature created using ink and chakra. In other words, somebody drew it. That somebody revealed himself to be Sai, wearing a carefree smile.

"Looks like I'm going to be delayed for awhile after all," Deidara smirked to match that odd smile. "I hope Tobi is having better luck."

"Yamato, did you send Sai to go after Deidara?" Kakashi asked.

"From what I've seen the guy do, I'm confident that Sai can match Deidara's abilities," Yamato said. "At the very least, Sai will keep him occupied."

"Then that just leaves us to worry about that guy," Kakashi pointed to Tobi, who ran across the water at top speed.

"Whoever that punk is, he's pretty fast," Yamato said. "But what does he think he think he can do to the Kyuubi? And what's with that mask? Do we have any info on him?"

"He's one of Akatsuki's newest members," Kakashi replied. "We don't know what he does, but if he's in the Akatsuki and he thinks he can capture the Kyuubi, then we have to assume that he can."

"Then, I'll just have to get to the Kyuubi first," Yamato started to run, hurrying to beat the fleet footed Akatsuki nin to the Kyuubi.

Super Sonic's ears perked up at the sound of rushing footsteps coming his way. Good. He was glad that he would get some idiots to mess with. With one eye carefully watching the kitsune demon, he scanned the surroundings. The cloaked guy in the orange mask was nowhere to be seen, but Yamato ran towards the Kyuubi, his hands brought together to release the chakra of the Shodai Hokage.

"Nobody gets in the way," Sonic growled and launched a ray of yellow light at Yamato. The ANBU nin had only a second to react by creating a thick wooden shield. The energy blast pierced through the shield, reducing it to splinters and sending Yamato flying off where the landed on the ground hard, unconscious.

"The orange faced dude must have turned tail and ran," Sonic guessed. "Oh, well. Time for a real fight," he turned back to the Kyuubi and grinned sadistically.

Super Sonic smiled at the Kyuubi no Kitsune just as he tended to do with all his opponents, no matter how fearsome. And the four tailed demon was no exception. That much at least, hadn't changed with Sonic. From a safe distance away, a pair of grim, yellow snake eyes watched in anticipation.

Tails, who was closest to the Kyuubi, fell to his knees. He was the only one who could stand so close to the Kyuubi's chakra unprotected without being burnt alive from the swirling red mist. It was his chakra after all. But the heat! The heat was unbearable. He had mastered the level of two tails, but four tails was beyond the limit. It sapped away at his strength until he could do nothing but lift up his head.

Yamato just barely opened his eyes, wincing from the burns that ran across his body. He vaguely remembered something Kabuto said the last time Naruto transformed into the four tailed Kyuubi.

"Shouldn't we call this a fight between fellow monsters?"

Naruto did not speak. Trapped in the deepest mode of rage and savagery, there was nothing the kitsune demon could say. Neither did Sonic say a word, as both of them stood in a state where words held no meaning. The only language they could now speak was Blood.

Sonic studied his opponent thoughtfully, noting how heavy the air around him was becoming as if the creature had its own force of gravity. Sensing the dark chakra, he knew that even it with the light of the emeralds, the demon's power would be deadly. Sonic kept his smile, knowing that didn't matter. Even as four massive tails lashed out at him all at once, he knew that he would be a hard target to hit. He was no mountain that stood to be crumbled, or an ocean that could be crashed.

He was light itself, in its purest form.

Sonic's red eyes flicked briefly to Orochimaru, an expression of confidence painted his face.

With a speed that mocked at the laws of space time, Super Sonic maneuvered past the flailing tails and spin dashed straight into the fox, his golden blades seared through the demon's flesh and boiled the blood that gushed through ragged flesh. Kyuubi released a dreadful howl that seemed to call to his own blood to rise and return back into his body. The black red ooze reverse flowed through the gaping wound where it sizzled and closed itself up. Sonic could only watch in amazement. He should've guessed that he wouldn't kill the demon in one blow.

"Don't be discouraged, Sonic," Orochimaru told him. "Even my sword of Kusunagi couldn't pierce his hide, but you've gone far beyond all expectations. Strike harder! Faster!"

Sonic twisted around back to the kitsune, ready to cut through once more. As he prepared his next strike, Sonic kept a calm presence. If he focused harder on his powers, he knew he could get past that monsters fast healing. Against Sonic's cool aura, the Kyuubi's chakra ran wild. An intense gaze beamed from the creature's vacant white eyes. It wasn't until the demon started to slowly back away and crouch lower that Sonic figured out what the Kyuubi was feeling.

It was fear. Fear and pain. Sonic couldn't kill it, but he caused it enough pain to feel fear.

Just then, the kitsune leapt as high as it could into the air. It wasn't until Sonic saw the demon make its way back down that he knew what it was trying to do. It was making a landing right in the middle of Station Square.

"A hell of a choice for a battle ground," Sonic smirked. "I gotta say, this kitsune knows how to keep things interesting," Sonic said and flew off in a flash of blinding light.

"Kuku, I'd better hurry, or this'll be over before I get there," Orochimaru snickered and vanished through a pillar of purple flame.

And when everyone was gone, Tails grabbed Yamato's body and flew into the sky as the sea walls came crashing down below him.

* * *

The people of Station Square already had their otherwise peaceful morning disturbed when they woke up to the chaos that exploded from Emerald Coast. Even so, the citizen's remained calm and even went about their daily business. Station Square was one of those cities. This was the kind of place that survived countless attacks from Dr. Robotnik in the past, as well as the rampaging of the Perfect Chaos. In every instant, Sonic was there to save everybody and drive back the forces of evil. When word got around that Sonic and his friends were on the scene battling against Robotnik and the alien ninjas with their weird powers, even the more neurotic Station Squarers were at ease.

That comfort was shattered the moment an orange comet crashed into the center of the city, right smack in the middle of its busiest street. Shards of pavement flew upwards and cars overturned as a massive shockwave erupted throughout the area. Emerging from the dust and smoke was a monster that looked like a fox, but bigger than a man and sporting four tails that swung around erratically, not caring what it hit.

"There you are," Super Sonic said, chaos controlling in front of the fox, the chaos emeralds revolving around him. "You're not doing so well, Kyuubes." The hedgehog wasn't sure if the demon understood what he was saying, but it was obvious that it saw Sonic as a threat. Letting out a low growl, the Kyuubi dug its claws into the cement and lurched to its feet, looking like it was ready to pounce. Opening his mouth wide, the demon started to gather its poisonous chakra. The winds of red chakra swirled into a powerful cyclone, its slicing force buffeted the city square. Glass from the above windows came crashing down, raining crystal shards upon the combatants. Sonic could smell the poison in the air. It was so thick that had he not been protected by chaos energy, his face might have melted right off his skull. Sonic fully understood now that he was facing a true king among demons.

"Maybe I shouldn't have toasted that Yamato guy," Sonic shrugged slightly. "He seemed to know the demon's weakness. The good news is I don't have to worry about it harming me. There's no way he can kill me."

Abruptly, the Kyuubi swerved its gaze away from Sonic, sniffing out a new scent. Sonic sensed it, too. Somebody else was coming.

Sure enough, the heavy rumbling of tanks and a soldiers' march echoed through the streets of Station Square. The rhythmic thumping of helicopters soon made its way down closer. Sonic right away recognized the G.U.N insignia on their vehicles. Some of the weapons the army brought out were sophisticated enough to give Robotnik a run for his money. Whether they knew they would be effective against the Kyuubi remained to be seen.

"Hopeless. Utterly hopeless," Orochimaru shook his head mournfully as he watched from the nearest rooftops. "You know I'm right, don't you, Kakashi?" Orochimaru didn't need to turn around to know that Kakashi and his team were right behind him. "The might of man is no match for the power of youki." (Demon Energy)

"Orochimaru," Kakashi growled, ready to slam a raikiri right through the back of his head. "I'll—"

"Wait," Shadow hobbled over next to Kakashi and pulled his hand away. "You guys have done enough. Now, I have a plan to beat this guy."

"Ah, the dark hedgehog," Orochimaru said wistfully. "I almost forgot about you."

"Shadow the Hedgehog!" the G.U.N Commander's voice rang out with authority from his command helicopter that hovered over the building. "Why am I not surprised to see you here? Stand aside and tell those friends of yours not to interfere. We've come to blow that demon back to the bottom of hell where it crawled out from."

Shadow let out a resentful snort that he was sure the commander noticed. Even so, he stepped back and folded his arms to show that he was obeying the Commander's orders. Those G.U.N jerks could march to their bloody deaths for all he cared.

"You too, Kakashi," Orochimaru added. "Don't spoil anything with that Mangekyou Sharingan of yours. My thoughts are bound with Sonic's. If you so much as lift that forehead protector from your eye, the hedgehog will pluck your eyeball out in a microsecond."

The Commander furrowed his graying eyebrows in suspicion. He wished he knew what those weird looking strangers down there were talking about and why they were here. Most importantly, what was Shadow, a shady guy in his own right, doing with these people? Those questions would have to wait for later, he knew. That demon fox needed to be taken down swiftly.

"Open Fire!" At his signal, a barrage of rockets and missiles launched themselves at the Kyuubi. The force of their explosions blasted the demon away, shrouding it in a thick cloud of dust and rubble. Its bloodthirsty roars died away in the smoke.

"Is it dead?" many of the soldiers asked amongst themselves. The Commander zoomed in on the scene through his binoculars. "The monster wasn't that big. There's no way it survived."

An otherworldly moan howled from the midst if the cloud and echoed through the streets. The soldiers shriveled back at the sight of a pair of gaunt, white eyes that gleamed through the smoky fog.

"If I can't kill him, you can't kill him," Sonic said with a yawn, while idly leaning against a wall, calmly waiting to see the outcome of this.

Slowly, the Kyuubi crawled from mist, revealing its hideous blood drenched form. The commander saw the pools of black blood ooze from its wounds and spilled onto the ground. "It's wounded," he said. "Another assault and he'll be dead."

As the soldiers aimed their weapons at the demon, Kyuubi gritted his black fangs and released an explosion of demonic energy. Pulled by the red chakra, the Kyuubi's blood came to life and rushed back through the fox's body. That which didn't instead broke into small dark orbs that orbited around the Kyuubi's body. As its own blood circled around the demon, the chakra winds picked up with such strength that they deflected any weapon was shot at the Kyuubi. Soldiers were blown away and the helicopters lost their control over the air. A vicious killing intent traveled along with the winds. Only Super Sonic stood calmly against the demon's fury.

"The creature has regenerated!" the commander dropped his binoculars in shock. "Fall back! It's going to attack!"

The shroud of blood started to gather in front of the Kyuubi's mouth. The stormy aura of red chakra swirled around it, making the ball grow into a jet black orb of dense, concentrated chakra. The Kyuubi clamped its mouth shut over the ball, sucking it deep into his body.

With a sudden belch, the horrible sphere blasted from the Kyuubi's mouth in a stream of utter blackness that spread out and devoured everything in its path. No matter what kind of protection the men from G.U.N. used, they were all equally crushed by the dark energy. As the infernal force sliced through their flesh, their blood evaporated into smoke, their brains turned to jelly, melting out of their empty eye sockets. Their bones disintegrated to nothing but a fine dust.

Only Super Sonic's godly powers prevented him falling to the same grisly fate. Even that couldn't save him from the agony of the dark chakra eating away at his body. Struggling against the waves of pain, Sonic dug his feet into the ground and continued to move through the ocean of darkness. All around him, he saw a world of destruction. The tanks and the cannons eroded away to rusty scraps of metal. He saw the skeletons of human beings crumble to ash and vanish fly off in the wind. Sonic felt like the golden light that surrounded and protected him was peeling off his body. Swearing to himself that he wouldn't end up dead like those pathetic humans, he kicked into high gear and flew straight for the Kyuubi. The closer Sonic got to the source of the pulsing beam, the stronger it got.

Seeing the blinding ball of light coming at him, the Kyuubi let out another hellish roar that pumped more chakra into his beam of black death, then with an added tail whip, Sonic lost his ground and was flung away, crashing into the building behind him, breaking through the wall on the other side. He kept on flying, smashing through stone and steel, leaving a straight line of holes cutting clean through every building through a course that ran several city blocks. When the golden light twinkled out of sight, Kyuubi relaxed his muscles and the blackness vanished.

"Hmmm…," Orochimaru stroked his chin in thought. "From the looks of things, Naruto's transformation has gotten even stronger than it was before. I suppose it won't be long before the ends up manifesting a fifth tail."

The Kyuubi tilted its head to the sky, his nose sniffed at the air. Before he could make his next move, a flashing spinning orb came hailing down from above. Daggers of brilliant white light stabbed through the Kyuubi's eyes as Super Sonic returned and rammed into his head.

"Nice shot, Kyuubes," Super Sonic grinned wickedly and wiped the blood from his mouth, "but no ramen bowl for you."

"Super Sonic is alive!" Orochimaru announced proudly, presenting his champion to the others. "It appears that they were evenly matched after all. This might not end for awhile."

"It's ending this very second!" Shadow swiped a hand as if to knock away the sannin's words and stepped up to the ledge of the building, just where Super Sonic was standing and facing the Kyuubi.

"Big words from a piece of sword fodder," Orochimaru sneered. "I know what you're planning. Don't think I won't stop you."

"For your sake, you'd better," Shadow threatened. "Because once I become Super Shadow, I'm finishing you off and your pet hedgehog."

"Shadow, wait!" Amy rushed to the ebony hedgehog and pulled him back from the ledge. "Promise me that whatever you do, you won't kill Sonic."

"No," he said both softly and callously. "I don't care if he's under a genjutsu or whatever. He's too dangerous to leave alive. I know that I said I'd kill him many times before, but now I mean it. Sonic the Hedgehog dies today."

Suddenly, Amy grabbed Shadow's chest fur and pulled him up to her face. Her expression was dark and fierce and brimming with tears, her voice quivering with rage "Shadow, if you kill him, I don't know how, bit I promise I'll find a way to kill you. I swear it."

Amy's killing intent was real. All the ninjas felt it and backed away considerably. Shadow knew it best of all. Even when Amy let him go, he shuddered from the echo of her fury that stayed in his body.

"…I promise." Shadow said quietly and looked away from Amy.

Shadow wasted no more time. At this point, he felt safer with the Kyuubi than with Amy. He flung off the roof and took a nose dive, falling forty stories to the ground where Super Sonic stood and kept the chaos emeralds orbiting around him.

"Get those emeralds if you can, Shadow-kun," Orochimaru hissed to himself and revealed a boa constrictor from his sleeve that slithered down the side of the building with lightning speed. Its tail seemingly had no end as it grew longer the further it fell down. Acting as Orochimaru's eyes, the snake lashed out at the ebony hedgehog, snatching him in its coils, just as they were a few feet off the ground. With all his determination and strength that he had, Shadow pulled down against the snake's coils that were pulling him up.

"What the hell?" Sonic took his eyes off the Kyuubi to find Shadow swinging down from the building with a giant snake. He felt like his blood vessels would burst, but Shadow kept pushing lower and lower.

Then he touched the chaos emeralds.

Arcane energies washed over him, the seven lights soaked through every aspect of his being, transforming him. Shadow's black fur burned into a brilliant platinum white light that illuminated everything in sight. The light poured into the snake, burning it alive and sending an electric current that reached all the way back to Orochimaru. With the searing light eating away at his hand, the sannin yelped and fell back from the lightning that killed his snake and burned his arm.

"What's going on?" Orochimaru cried out, the light stabbing through his slit eyes.

"You're losing," Kakashi replied, grabbing the snake lord and moving on the offensive.

If the light was bright for Orochimaru, for the Kyuubi it was a like watching an exploding star. The presence of two radiant super hedgehogs was indeed just like being caught in a supernova. Even Super Sonic couldn't comprehend what happened.

"Super Shadow?" Sonic collapsed to the ground in shock before the red and platinum hedgehog that shot him an icy glare from his ruby eyes.

"Who do you think it is, faker?" Shadow asked and slammed his fist into the gold hedgehog's nose, sending him crashing into the ground.

"Hey! What did you do that for?"

"Because it felt good, that's why," Shadow said. "Kicking your ass is going to be pleasure, but Kyuubi…that's business."

Shadow saw the bloodthirsty look on the Kyuubi's eyes, pained by the lights cast from the two hedgehogs. This was no dumb beast, Shadow realized. It knew that it didn't have to hit either hedgehog directly. Just getting close was enough to dampen their chaos powers with its red chakra. Given enough time, the fox would be able to cut them both off from the emeralds, and they only had a limited amount of time in their super forms already.

Swearing under his breath, Shadow knew he couldn't take on both the Four-Tailed Kyuubi Naruto and Super Sonic. Cooperating with Sonic was also out of the question.

"Actually, I think I'm gonna enjoy this, too," Shadow smirked and confidently walked closer to Kyuubi. Sensing a real threat, the fox swiped at Shadow with another tail. The hedgehog felt a slight scratch on his cheek. The Kyuubi's tail was able to break through his energy field and cut into his skin.

"Is that all you got?" Shadow asked, gently wiping the little bit of glittering blood from his face with the back of his hand. "I dare you to do that again."

The platinum hedgehog stood in front of the kitsune calmly as another tail swung his way. Shadow waited for it, waited for it, timing his movements, and at the last possible second, he grabbed both arms around the end of the tail. With his awesome strength, he pulled on the tail, lifting the entire fox into the air. The kitsune shrieked and flailed its limbs as Super Shadow turned it into his personal weapon and swung the beast over his head.

"Fear my Kyuubi flail, faker!"

Sonic couldn't recall if it was the speed of Shadow's attack or that he was too freaked out to move, but either way, the force of the Kyuubi crashed into Sonic and he felt the surprising sensation of his body being flung into the air. The world grew colder as the hedgehog hurtled faster and higher into the sky until he was nothing more but a bright yellow twinkle in the distance.

"That'll keep him out of the way for now," Shadow said. "As for you…" he took the skies carrying the Kyuubi in tow, the two of them soaring upwards as a bright shooting star. Shadow's face strained as he tried to hold on to the demon's tail. The Kyuubi's relentless thrashing wasn't making any of that easier and he tasted the red chakra invading his mouth. Just like blood.

Shadow looked down upon the city that lay under him, looking for anything that could be used against the demon. Not far off, he spotted a construction site for a new skyscraper. The building's skeleton was fully enforced with over seventy stories worth of steel. He hurled the Kyuubi down where it plummeted like a fiery comet down into the building, smashing through every floor, setting the entire structure to collapse. Tons of concrete and steel came crashing down, creating a cacophony of noise that deadened the Kyuubi's howls and went silent only when the Kyuubi was fully buried alive in the tower's foundation.

Shadow sighed in relief and took his time floating back to the earth. The cool morning air was sweet, now free from the hot taint of the Kyuubi's chakra. The soft breeze, now silent from the demon's cries, brought peace to the super hedgehog. He knew the kitsune was still alive, but it was going to take a while for it to dig out from all that rubble. Most importantly, nobody else was hurt.

Maria would be proud.

* * *

Tails pushed his way through the gawking crowd of people that decided to stay and watch the spectacle. He stumbled into the open area where everybody else feared to enter. The place where Shadow the Hedgehog stood.

"Hey, Shadow!" said hedgehog opened his eyes to see the other kitsune with just two tails racing towards him. "I've been lookin' for ya."

"Tails!" Shadow shouted. "I thought you were dead or something. It took you this long to get back to the city?"

"Hey, it's not like I could've done much. Besides, I had to drag Yamato's body to safety. Sonic hit him really hard. And since the Kyuubi went and took over Naruto's body, I haven't been able to talk to Kyuubi or access his evil demon juice."

"I guess that would make sense," Shadow rubbed his chin in thought, "but the Kyuubi's chakra is called 'youki,' not 'evil demon juice.' If we have to talk about these things, we might as well get it right."

"Sorry," Tails smiled, "but I'm kinda new at all this ninja stuff."

"Well, you'd better start catching on quickly, since you're one of the reasons we have to deal with this kind of junk."

"Youki, was it?" Tails repeated the word, filing it into his head. "So what are we going to do about Kyuubi Naruto's youki and Super Insane-O Sonic?"

"We're not going to do anything. Weird things are bound to happen if you get close to the Kyuubi and Sonic will only make things that much worse. I bet you won't want to be around to see what I might do to the hedgehog, so why don't you take off and deal with the Akatsuki?"

"You mean that freak show with the bombs and the mouths on his hands? Have you seen how dangerous he is? Besides, Knuckles and some of the Leaf guys are handling him right now."

"First of all, I don't trust any of these Leaf ninjas any further than I can throw them—"

"You could throw them really far," Tails interrupted.

"Shut up! I don't trust them. Period. They're the weirdest bunch of humans I have ever seen and I can't wait until they leave this planet and never come back. And second, those Akatsuki guys are here because of you, Tails. That makes them your problem."

"But Sonic's my best bud in the whole world," Tails' ears flattened against his head. "That makes him my problem, too."

"And think how bad that makes things if he goes and kills you. Your blood stained all over your 'best bud's' hands. Is that what you want?"

Tails swallowed. "No…that isn't."

"Relax," Shadow put a comforting hand on the fox's shoulder. "I'll take care of him for you. Then, when Kyuubi gets back, I'll finish the job on him."

"Are you gonna be able to handle all that? You're not gonna kill Sonic, are ya?"

"No," Shadow groaned and rolled his eyes. "I've been through that already. I'm not going to kill him."

"Okay, as long as you know what you're doing."

"I do," Shadow huffed, looking offended. "If I break my word and kill Sonic, you and Amy are free to have your vengeance against me, but until then, I'm the only guy who can stop him."

"Hold on!" Tails halted as Shadow turned his back to leave. "Just make sure you don't kill the Kyuubi either."

"Huh? So I can't kill anyone now?"

"No," Tails insisted. "If you do that, you'll kill Naruto also. You should know that by now."

"Letting them both live sounds like a much worse idea to me," Shadow said. "If he's really bound to that demon, then ending his suffering sounds like the best option."

"He doesn't deserve that, Shadow. If I turned into a demon like that, would you kill me?"

Shadow flinched back as if he had been kicked. "Wha? Don't ask me weird questions like that! You really want an answer?"

"I shoulda guessed you'd say something like that," Tails said, frowning slightly. "Never mind. I bet you would."

"All right, I understand your point," Shadow raised his hands in defense. "I'll stop the Kyuubi somehow and save Naruto. Still, that's a lot of trouble to help out a guy you don't even know. What gives?"

"Shadow," Tails began. "I think you can understand what I've got to say better than anybody else. Probably better than Sonic."

Curiosity kicked into Shadow hard and he listened intentively to what the kit had to say. "Go on, then," he urged.

"You're the guy who has aways been searching for the key to his past. Now, so am I. I've started to realize that there's a lot that I don't know about myself. A few days ago, the most feared demon in existence calls me and says that I'm destined to free him and gain his power. I don't know what that means, but it says a lot about who I really am. I can't explain this feeling, but there's a connection between me and Uzumaki Naruto. The same chakra flows through us both. Because of that, I know him. I bet he never would've thought he's see another jinchuuriki when he came to Mobius. Least of all, one who shares the same demon. That same demon is a part of who I am. I can't just ignore it. But I know that I could never live with myself if I killed Naruto. If I'm going to tame the Kyuubi, I'm going to need his help and I bet that he'll need my help, too."

"You sure about this, though? Leaving that monster alive?"

"I know the Kyuubi, too. He's not a monster, Shadow. He just wants to be free."

Shadow nodded and opened a doorway through space with chaos control, bringing out the biggest machine gun Tails had ever laid eyes on. Three times his size, Tails collapsed under the weapon's weight when Shadow tossed it into his arms.

"What is this thing?" Tails asked as he tried to push away the gun that nearly squished him.

"Not long ago, I too had to go on a quest to discover the mysteries of my past," Shadow explained. "To do that, I used a lot of guns. I thought that you'd find it helpful, too."

"I can't fly around with this clunker!" Tails protested and pushed the gun aside.

"Geez, last time I do anything nice for you…"

"I've got my own equipment I could use. If you wanna help me, could you chaos control me back to the Mystic Ruins?"

"Anything for you to get lost already. Sonic's coming back," Shadow gave a flick at Tails' forehead, zapping him off to the Mystic Ruins.

Sure enough, what was once just a small spark in the sky grew to shining bolt of death that was streaking down ready to cut through anything in its path. Shadow sensed the blazing rage of the possessed hedgehog, realizing that he was Sonic's target. Rather than waiting to get hit, he leapt towards the streaking bolt, their two energy fields colliding and sending them both shooting back into the sky.

* * *

The chaos emeralds danced around like multicolored flames around the two super hedgehogs. Shadow lost count of how may times he went all out against Sonic. In those times, it was never made clear who was stronger, who could actually kill the other. Shadow regretted that he wouldn't be able to find out if he could really kill Sonic, but this was a good a chance as ever to give that faker the beating of his life.

But this time was different. This time, Sonic was ready to kill. He started by taking the air itself and forming it into a vortex of fiercely, swirling wind. The chaos enhanced tornado lifted Shadow up and violently dashed him around. A mere mortal would have been sliced into confetti, but Shadow was bruised and a little more than disoriented.

"I'm really glad you took this step, faker," Shadow said grimly. "Now I'm going to really enjoy kicking your ass."

"You got one cheap shot at me," Sonic growled. "But you never fought me before with the intent to kill."

"That's why I really oughta kill you right now. How could someone who mastered the chaos emeralds just let his mind get taken over like that? No one should be able to force into a super transformation like that!"

Sonic gave no answer. The overwhelming killing intent took him out of talking mode and compelled him to launch a homing attack on the other hedgehog. Shadow teleported behind and called a giant machine gun into his hand. The exact same gun he was going to give Tails. Heavy as it was, the ultra strong hedgehog easily wielded it in one hand and fired and endless round of bullets at Sonic, all which evaporated before it could penetrate his aura.

"That was the most unnecessary attack you've ever done! Was there any point to that at all?"

"Didn't it look badass?"

"No! It was retarded!"

"What about this?" Shadow brought the gun smacking down on Sonic's head, smashing his firearm to pieces.

Sonic shot him a death glare as he rubbed his forehead, feeling the warmth of his blood running down his brow, through his fingers, and over his eyes.

"Don't look at me like that, Sonic. I invented that look," Shadow said, grinning slightly. "And your killing intent just makes me laugh. If you can't keep your own head screwed on right, you'll never be able to control such delicate properties like time and space," Shadow finished his lecturing while dodging the sparkling blur. "Not like the way I can." With a snap of his fingers, Shadow blinked out of existence, reappearing to kick Sonic in the back only to disappear and reappear at different points, tenderizing his fellow super hedgehog with a flurry of blows.

"What the hell was that?"

"Like I said, you don't have the head to manipulate chaos control to such a fine degree. If you could, you would be able to use Chaos Snap like I just did. But I'm tired of teaching you about chaos control. It's time to put you down!"

Shadow stretched out his right hand and channeled as much power as he could into it. The radiant chaos energy took on a fiery blue hue as it burned around his hand that clenched into a fist. "Chaos Strike!" he cried and plunged his fist with all his strength into Sonic's head. He realized there was a good chance that his fist would've cracked through Sonic's skull, causing hedgehog brain to rain down on the city. Or it could've just knocked the shit out of him. Either way, Shadow smiled. It looked as if Sonic's face was made of silly putty the way it molded around Shadow's fist. He had to make sure to retract his fist before Sonic's head detached itself from the body. When he did, Sonic started to go limp and plummet back to the earth.

"Come with me," Shadow said to the barely conscious hedgehog. He grabbed Sonic by his arm and flying him back down until he reached the rooftop where Amy and the others stood. While weakened and dazed, Sonic still posed a threat. Shadow threw him into a headlock to keep him down. "Here you go, Amy. As you can see, Sonic is alive and well."

"But look at him. He's still trapped under that awful genjutsu," Amy looked at Sonic mournfully. "How do we free him?"

"This was Orochimaru's technique," Shadow said. "He would know. Where is that snake bastard, anyway? We'll beat the answer out of him."

"Kakashi went to fight him alone," Sakura pointed to where Kakashi and Orochimaru fought each other, running up and bouncing off the walls of various buildings with kunais clashing and jutsus flying.

"Conveniant…" Shadow muttered. "So none of you know anything about genjutsus?"

"Genjutsus are my specialty," Sakura said. "All genjutsu focus on controlling the chakra flow of the specific target and manipulating through that, how they react to external stimulus. The proper way to dispel a genjtutsu then, is to send your chakra flow into the victim's system and cancelling its effects."

"I can do that!" Amy exclaimed and brandished her piko piko hammer. "All I have to do is bop Sonic on the head, right?"

"That won't work," Shadow shook his head. "Sonic would've changed back after I jammed a crap load of chaos energy up his ass!"

"It's possible that since Sonic is transformed into this super form, there's no way for another person's chakra to break through his aura. No matter how much is used," Neji explained.

"Hmph. See the trouble we're in now, faker? They just said you're stuck like this," Shadow growled and tightened his grip around Sonic's neck. "All because you had to go rampaging around as Super Sonic."

"Bite me, Shadow," Sonic snarled. "You can't hold on to me forever. Soon as I'm free, you're gonna have a lot more to worry about than some measly demon fox."

Shadow snorted and kicked him down.

"Ease up, Shadow," Sakura urged. "Sonic didn't ask to be genjutsued. He got possessed just like Naruto."

No sooner than when Sakura said her teammate's name was the quaking of a violent tremor felt throughout the city.

Neji and Hinata directed their Byakaguns towards the source of the quaking. They could just as easily have guessed and would've been right, but their eyes saw the truth. A clawed hand started to crawl out of the rubble of its burial place. Four lashing tails erupted from the ground, crumbling the piles of stone and metal to dust.

"Naruto has broken free," Neji said gloomily. "He will likely be targeting you, Shadow, as he sees you as his greatest threat."

"I can't let go of you, faker. Maybe I should just feed you to the Kyuubi."

"Wait," Shikamaru piped up. "I have a plan for how we can use this troublesome hedgehog to help us."

"Keep talking…," Shadow glowered at the shadow ninja impatiently.

"While Super Sonic's aura prevents a simple thing like placing raw chakra into him, a complex technique should be effective on him. Even though we can't dispel the genjutsu, we could shut it down temporarily if Ino can use her ability to switch minds with Sonic."

"Huh? No way is anybody letting some weird ninja girl get inside my head. Lemme go Shadow, before we see what kind of things we can stuff in your head!"

"I don't remember you being a part of this conversation," another fist crunched against Sonic's jaw.

"But Shika," Ino protested. "We don't even know of this is will work."

"It's our best shot. If it works, Orochimaru won't be able to use Sonic and that means we'll have control over all the chaos emeralds. That'll give use the winning edge."

"Then it's settled. Hold still, faker," Shadow gave a darkly playful smile. "You might even enjoy this."

"Okay, here goes," Ino held up the Yamanaka clan triangle seal. **"Shintenshin no Jutsu," (Mind Body Switch)** After her seal was complete and the last syllable of her technique spoken, Ino's body crumpled like a lifeless doll into Chouji's arms while her soul flew into Sonic's head.

"Wow…!" Ino stared at her new hedgehog hands. The chaos emeralds reflected her new face back to her on their glistening faces. Most of all, she felt the supreme energies radiating from her body. "The power flowing through this body is incredible. No wonder everyone wants these chaos emeralds so badly."

"Now listen closely," Shadow lifted an instructing finger. "Using chaos energy is not easy. I already told faker that it takes a lot of mental control, focus, and—"

"WOO-HOO!" Super Sonic Ino shouted with glee and took off in a thundering bolt of light, reveling in her newfound power.

"…discipline," Shadow sighed in defeat and brushed off the dust from his face.

"Here it comes," Shikamaru pointed to the howling four tailed beast below him. Naruto's Kyuubi form rose from out of the dust and let out a vengeful roar to anyone who challenged him.

Ino accepted that challenge.

"Stay away from my friends, you evil fox thing!" Ino yelled, now rolling down the side of the building in a dazzling spin dash. Ino didn't conserve a single ounce of her colossal strength that lay behind every one of her countless strikes that she laid on the Kyuubi. At no point in her ruthless pounding did she let her speed slow down. Even as the giant fox fell to the ground with a hard thud, Ino bolted away to her next target, oblivious to the rapid healing of every wound on the demon's body, the pain disappearing as quickly as it came.

* * *

Kakashi had no time to be distracted by the goings on with his team. Not when his opponent was Orochimaru. A normal shinobi battle usually had the fighters were experts in a specialized set of techniques anywhere from elemental attacks to the Gouken Iron Fist taijutsu.

This was not a normal shinobi battle. Both of them were knowledgeable in over a thousand different techniques and neither made any effort to hide that fact. In the few moments that they fought, they threw forth fireballs, mudslides, hidden snakes, gusts of wind, a Raikiri, and shards of glass from glass flung as shuriken. Kakashi threw out everything he had, but Orochimaru did not dare allow him to reveal his Mangekyou Sharingan. Even if the sannin probably could have dealt with that eye jutsu on Kakashi's level, he refused to take that chance. If only that it brought up too many painful memories of Itachi.

"You really have gotten stronger, Kakashi."

"Maybe I have, but should you really be having this much trouble killing me, Orochimaru?"

"Are you insinuating that I'm weak?" Orochimaru sneered. "Not a smart thing to say."

"I'm not saying you're weak. I'm saying you're dying. That's much worse. You're body has deteriorated so much, when you learned about the chaos emeralds, you desperately needed to have them. You even put Sasuke's life on the line for them."

"And it'll all be it worth it. When I unlock the mysteries of the seven chaos emeralds, death will fade away like a bad dream."

"Except they're not yours anymore," Kakashi said, gesturing for his foe to turn around.

"Orochimaru!" a mystical lighted flooded over the two shinobi as Ino flew from behind screaming the name of her target.

"Impossible!" the snake sannin raised the katana of Kusunagi against the incoming hedgehog. A flash of pure energy stabbed into his piss yellow eyes, reflecting on the blade. Orochimaru was shocked his sword shaking in his hands.

Eat Super Sonic fist!" Ino screamed, her punch blinked past the sword. A flash of diamond light exploded as her fist hammered a resounding blow into the sannin's face. Orochimaru gagged, chocking on his own tongue. That split second instant where the blow connected to his face replayed itself in his mind over and over again as his limp body plunged down the side of the skyscraper to the bottom where he impacted into the concrete.

The city was suddenly quiet.

Kakashi stood stunned and wide eyed. He couldn't move.

"Hi, Kakashi-sensei!" Ino's high pitched squeal and exuberant smile was evident even through Super Sonic's body. "Whaddya think?"

"What do I think?" Kakashi exhaled deeply. "I wouldn't be surprised if you actually killed him."

"Oh my gosh! I killed him? That's so cool!" Ino squealed and flew back to tell her teammates.

One burst of chaos control later, and Ino warped in front of Chouji and Shikamaru.

"Hey, guys! Guess what? I beat him! I beat Orochimaru!"

"You did?" her Team 10 partners asked in unison, their mouths gaping open.

"Hell Yeah!" Ino puncjed the air and raised the peace sign. "I'm even stronger than you now Sakura!"

"Ino sure has gotten a lot scarier with that new body," Chouji whispered into Shikamaru's ear. "She's way scarier than Sakura ever was."

"She scares me more than Old Lady Tsunade," Shikamaru gave a troubled nod in agreement. "If we don't get her back in her real body, this could become a real hassle."

* * *

"So, what will I do about you, Kyuubi?" Shadow asked himself as he watched the tips of each of the demon's deadly glowing tails, certain that they would attack without warning. As long as he could see the Kyuubi, he was certain that he could dodge any attack. As much trouble as this was going to be, Shadow was glad that he could at last fight the Kyuubi alone. No Super Sonic in the way. No distractions.

"Shadow-kun," Hinata leapt to Shadow's side, her opened and glowing with an aura of a soft blue light.

"What are you doing here, you stupid woman?" Shadow yelled. "Get the hell out of here before you get pulverized!"

Too late. The shadow of the Kyuubi's tails darkened over Hinata's shining eyes, coming down to crush her. One tail for her and three for Shadow. Shadow warped between the spaces of the thrashing tails and lunged for Hinata, just as the space she occupied was reduced to dust from the tail strike. Now seeing the opening Shadow had left for him, the Kyuubi growled hungrily, its teeth dripping with blood. Another combo of tail swipes knocked Shadow and Hinata off their feet and coiled around their bodies.

"Why did you come?" Shadow's voice was icy. "Thanks to you, we're both going to die now. Let me guess. Were you afraid that I would kill Naruto-kun?"

"No, I didn't come to tell you that," Hinata struggled to speak against the tail that constricted her chest. "…I came to help you."

"How stupid," Shadow groaned. "Of all people, how can a depressing girl like you be helpful to me?"

"I didn't need to tell you not to kill Naruto-kun because I know…" blood began to trickle from her lips as her lungs screamed for air, "…that no matter what happens, Naruto-kun won't die."

Shadow sensed strength coming from Hinata's eyes even as her body grew weaker.

"When I held the chaos emeralds in my hands, I tapped into their energy and I connected to all the different kinds of chakra in the universe. I was bound to everything. That's how I can feel Naruto-kun's power. Even now, he's fighting against the Kyuubi no Kitsune. The demon fox is strong, but Naruto-kun is so much stronger. I think you're strong too, Shadow-kun. If you're using all seven emeralds, you can use their power to help you find what you need to seal the Kyuubi."

"That dumb girl is smarter than I thought. I was so wrapped up in kicking Sonic's ass that I started to think like him too much. That faker forgot that the chaos emeralds can grant knowledge just as much they grant power. If I concentrate, I can learn what kind of power can beat this fox." Shadow saw heard the dripping of blood from Hinata's mouth. He saw that her eyes that once blazed with inner strength were now closed and silent. "She'll be dead soon and I might not last much longer."

The Kyuubi lifted the tail that held Shadow, uncurled it, and bit down on Shadow, trying to devour him.

"Cant' suffocate me, so now you want to eat me? Forget that!"Shadow pushed against Kyuubi's upper jaws, straining to keep those teeth from chewing him apart. Seeing as how the teeth's razor edges grazed against even his super transformed skin, he knew that he could be eaten. Bracing himself against the Kyuubi, Shadow shut his eyes and continued to concentrate. He immediately felt the fiery red and black chakra. It was all around him, consuming him.

He ignored that. His mastery over chaos was stronger and he knew it. Shadow relaxed his aura and ignored the pain, moving beyond it. He was at peace. Relaxed and unafraid.

In that space, Shadow heard the call of the chaos emeralds. The seven gems, tied to the existence of every living being, opened up their vast secrets.

It was just like Hinata described. Each one resonated and hummed in its own unique pattern, speaking to him in a language that only a Master of the Emeralds could understand. Through their glistening gemstones, they opened up a doorway

Just below him, Shadow sensed a different colored chakra. It was a faint green sparkle, the only light that burned in the depths of the Kyuubi's prison.

"A small crystal necklace," Shadow realized. "It's hanging from Naruto. Where have I sensed that green chakra before?"

An image of Yamato using his sealing jutsu on Tails in his Kyuubified form appeared in Shadow's mind. He was the same color as the green crystal when he used that jutsu. "So the chakra from that necklace is opposed to the Kyuubi's chakra, but I need a larger amount and Yamato is down. I need to find more," Shadow elevated his mind higher and higher, trying to embrace all the different energy signals all over the planet. He didn't have to go too far. Something else was giving off the same type of aura.

Shadow searched until he saw that Amy was positively glowing with the green light.

No. Not Amy. Her hammer. Her red and yellow hammer was beaming with the crystal's emerald glow.

"That's interesting," Shadow thought. Breaking free from the Kyuubi's jaws, Shadow scooped Hinata's body in his arms and flew back to the others.

"Amy, where did you get that hammer? Shadow asked.

"Huh?" she looked at him strangely. "I had it since as long as I could remember. Why?"

"Never mind, just give it to me," Shadow demanded upfront.

"What? No. What do you need it for?" Amy clutched it tighter.

"Why I need it isn't important. Just give it to me," he reached out and plucked it from her hands. "I'll give it back," he said as he teleported away with the hammer in his hands.

Shadow wasn't sure how silly he looked flying around as Super Shadow and carrying Amy's red piko piko hammer. It was a formidable weapon in its own right, but only he saw that a strong green power that emanated from deep within the hammer. Amy must never have awakened that energy because there never were any demons on Mobius. Now, Shadow was going to make sure there would never be any demons on Mobius ever again.

The Kyuubi stood below him. Shadow reared the hammer back as far as he could. Strands of green chakra wrapped themselves along the hammer, glowing brightly on the top. He let loose suddenly, letting that hammer spin towards the Kyuubi where it smashed into the fox's head right between the eyes. The force of the hammer hit so hard that the piko piko hammer itself shattered into tiny pieces. An emerald flame engulfed the kitsune's entire body. It ate away at the four tails, the ears, and every part of the fox as it burned through its hollow eye. The demon let out one final, terrible scream and it didn't stop until nothing was left but Naruto himself, lying on the earth in human form.

No more than ten seconds later, Sakura poofed out of a white cloud and bent down to look at Naruto. The others followed in quickly and gathered around Naruto's body.

"He's alive, right?" Shadow asked.

"Yes," Sakura smiled warmly. "Naruto is going to be okay."

"Hinata's been damaged too" Shadow informed her. "Now where Annoying Girl possessing the blue hedgehog's body go?"

"S'up, Shadow-kun," Ino chaos controlled in front of him.

"Your medical talents should be much more powerful now that you have all that chaos energy. You can apply that power to heal Hinata," Shadow gently laid Hinata before Ino. Take care of her, okay. It was her intuition that really saved us."

Shadow let out a relieved sigh. Now that his mission was accomplished, he reverted back to his normal black and red from. He turned to walk away and get some peace and quiet until, Amy ran in his direction, bumping into him. "Wow, Shadow! You really did it. Did you bring back my hammer?"

"Your what?"

"My piko piko hammer," Amy held out an empty hand. "I lent it to you, remember? You beat the Kyuubi with it, so I want it back now."

"Oh, that? I don't have it anymore," Shadow replied absently. "It shattered when it hit the Kyuubi."

"…What?"

"Are you under a genjutsu too that you can't understand the words that are coming out of my mouth? It's gone. It exploded into a million pieces," he widened his eyes and spread out his arms for emphasis.

Amy fixed huge brimming eyes on the Ultimate Lifeform.

"You broke it!" Amy screeched. Shadow winced and plugged his ears. "I can't believe you would just take my hammer and break it like that. I had that hammer forever and you came along and you didn't just break it, but you had to go and blow it up into a bajillion pieces!"

"At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if you exploded into a bajillion pieces."

"I'm gonna kill you, Shadow!" Amy charged on the attack swinging her arms wildly while Shadow yawned and pushed his hand on her head, keeping her an arm's length away.

"I expected this to happen. I did throw it pretty hard."

Volcanic flames consumed Amy's tropical green eyes as she prepared to strangle Shadow's neck.

"Ease off," Shadow said unsympathetically. "I never said I'd bring your stupid hammer back in one piece. Besides, I promised I'd keep Sonic alive and I did, so back off."

"And just when is he supposed to get his own head back in his body?" she pointed an accusing finger at Sonic's possessed body. Ino innocently waved back.

"Don't bother me about unimportant details like that."

"Shadow, I'm gonna bash your head in so hard!"

"Ha! With what?" Shadow let out a snide laugh. "Your hammer? Good luck."

Amy readied herself to lunge at Shadow again, but she suddenly felt her whole body pinned into place. A shadow frozen under Amy's feet snaked along a path back to Shikamaru. Soon, a shadowy hand reached up and clamped itself around Amy's mouth.

"Knock it off, you troublesome hedgehogs," Shikamaru said. "You're giving me a headache."

"Thank you," Shadow looked at Shikamaru as if he were his savior.

"Eh, you know you love her. And I don't need your gratitude. I just wanted to confirm it for myself. After all that troublesome commotion, is the Kyuubi really sealed?"

"Yeah," Shadow replied. "It won't be coming back put to bother anyone for awhile."

* * *

Back in Tails' workshop at the Mystic Ruins, Tails laid on the back of a skateboard under another one of his Tornado planes, adjusting this and that with his favorite monkey wrench. He realized that was losing his planes thanks to these ninjas, but he had plenty of replacements and if he was going to be serious against the Akatsuki, it was with his machines where he was the most effective. It was unbearably stuffy in his workshop, so he left the wide front doors open to let in the breeze. Why one of Mobius's greatest mechanical geniuses had a broken air conditioner was anybody's guess.

"**Oooooooh….,"** a low rumbing voice growled.

"Kyyubi! You're back?" Tails said with a frown. He was starting to hate the feeling of the Kyuubi's demonic presence, if for no other reason than because it raised the temparature too high.

"**Yeah, kit. I got beaten. I was having fun playing with your friends, but damn them for throwing a hammer at my head."**

"You deserved it," Tails sclolded. "I'm never letting you mess with my head like that again."

"**Now don't be like that, Tails,"** Kyuubi whined. **"I know I got a little impatient. But however you think of me, I like you and I feel that you really are the perfect master to accept my chakra. That being said, I consider you my ally and everything I do will ultimately be to your benefit. Which is why I have much to tell you. As you might have guessed, Naruto is alive, although the seal has weakened considerably. It won't be long now…hehehehehehe."**

"Listen, Kyuubi," Tails threw the wrench aside. "If you think I'm gonna kill Naruto or watch you kill him just so I can have your power, then you've picked the wrong kitsune."

"**It's true that Naruto will die the moment that my seal is destroyed. Since he is the only other person who can touch the seal, I have nothing against letting the brat lose his life to remove it if it gets the job done quicker. While the seal weakens and he starts losing himself to his rage, the probability for that grows stronger all the time. I don't have to remind you that I will take my freedom at any price. I'll tell you point blank. If you don't want any part in that, you'll just have to kill yourself. Not that it'll do much good."**

The Kyuubi's words were like a blast of frigid ice in the midst of the hellfire that surrounded him. They made Tails shudder and his ears droop down.

"**Now don't look so down. I think you've got the wrong idea about Naruto. I've got no problem if he survives my escape. The sealing jutsu used by the Yondaime held many secrets. There's a chance for Naruto to survive the unsealing process."**

"Really?"

"**I think you're also wrong when you said I picked the wrong kitsune. You're a smart kit. I believe that you can figure out a way to save Naruto. For the time being, I need Naruto to stay alive, anyway. If he gets killed, it's all over for us, but together, we can work to protect him from the Akatsuki.**

"**In other words, if you would quit acting like such a human, living in fear that I'm going to possess your ass or force you to eat your friends, and instead start treating me like I'm your partner, we can do some real good."**

"So how should I see you?"

"**Think of me as your spirit guide."**

"Spirit guide?" Tails arched an eyebrow.

"**That's all a demon, really is. Just another spirit. So whaddya say, kit? Isn't protecting people what ninjas are all about?"**

"Doesn't look like I have much of a choice, do I?"

"**None whatsoever,"** Kyuubi laughed. **"Like it or not, we're in this together which is why I wanted to give you a heads up and tell you that you're about to be attacked right now."**

Tails paled at the Kyuubi's words and his stomach started to sink in when he heard footsteps entering his workshop.

"So you're the guy who killed Uchiha Sasuke," came a shadowy voice that was unfamiliar to Tails.

Tails glided out from under the plane on his skateboard and jumped to his feet, the monkey wrench gripped tightly in his hand. The intruder stood in front of the open door, his long dark cloak fluttering in the breeze.

"Why so surprised? Weren't you going to come after us anyway?" asked the stranger.

Tails held his wrench close. "That cloak. You're…"

"Here I am Tails-kun," he stepped closer. "Don't run away."

"**Be warned, Tails,"** Kyuubi said gravely. **"This guy's chakra is evil."**

"That's okay," a fanged grin appeared on the face of the kitsune. "So is mine."

**End of Mega-Huge Chapter 11! If you read all that, congratulations! I honestly didn't plan on writing a cliffie like that. Many things will be resolved next chapter, so see ya then.**


	12. Against the Akatsuki

**Hey, everybody! Long time no update, eh? It sure feels good to be back in the front pages, out of the dark corners of I'm sure a lot of you are happy about that, too!**

**Shika Kev Prower: It feels like forever in between updates, doesn't it? Hopefully, I can do something about that. Meanwhile, read below to see who the mystery Akatsuki was. **

**Dragon Man 180: That's a good question of whether or not Itachi's sharingan can follow chaos control. Even if he can't, I'm sure Shadow will find a way to surprise him.**

**Dr. Weird: Pein is coming soon. Now that I've seen what he can do in the manga, he'll be doing a lot of crazy things in this story!**

**rikku92: You'll know for sure **

**kilatails: I know what you mean about Tails. He should get a lot more screen time. It's just there's so many people in this story, but I definitely like having Tails around a lot. This chapter has lots of Tails, so you'll like it. **

**Lycropath: You'll see who it was. I miss idiot Tobi, too. Luckily this story is a bit behind the events of the manga, so Tobi is still an idiot here (a very big one, too) Deidara is going to have so much fun fighting Sai, that I need to give them their own chapter. The fight got totally out of control! **

**Asher Tye: With great difficulty, I imagine. The Akatsuki are not the nicest guys in the world. And that's an understatement. **

**TheShamanMaster: Deidara makes such a great enemy for Knuckles, doesn't he? Stay tuned for more of that. **

**Zohaku: Sasuke could still be alive. As for the Akatsuki, you will see below who it is.**

**Angelus-alvus: Yes. Yes they are going to get him. You think they can handle Tails?**

**Soul Teller: I know it doesn't seem like it, but that actually did help me work faster. Thanks!**

**TC chan: I promise Shadow is gonna have tons of fun before this story is over. Soon, he'll have a whole world of ninjas to mess with. It's gonna be cool!**

**belletiger: Thanks so much! I see you updated your story too. Writer's block is a pain, but keep fighting it.**

**azngirlchibi: I didn't know about that hammer thing. I haven't watched all the Sonic X episodes (it's hard to sit through them all.) This is more the games/AU version. Anyways, she might learn that power later on.**

**Blue Mage Quartet: I'm glad you're excited. I'm trying to make Hinata get tougher as the story goes on. I knew you'd love Ino part. I wanna give every character a chance to something cool. **

**Victizzle.DUH: I was devastated too when poor Deidara. I feel like I'm gonna keep him around in this story for awhile. About the thing Shikamaru said about Shadow and Amy, he was just annoyed and he wanted to say something to shut them up. I'm sure he really does, though.**

**oOo-Kaede-Higuchi-oOo: Yeah, this story does some pretty unexpected stuff. Even I'm surprised sometimes. Amy is hammerless now, but I'm sure she'll get a new one, eventually.**

**arcanumpanthera: Thanks so much:D If you hate Itachi, I bet you'll probably hate him more when you read this.**

**Shining Shadow: I thought up a name that I like for Tails' weapons. I'll just say now that it has a Japanese name, which I think it's cool. You'll see it soon.**

**Authoress Rachizzle: I know it's long. I have a word count. Most people really like the long chapters. This one's like half the size, So nobody should ever say I don't listen to the fans.**

**Chapter 12: Against the Akatsuki**

"**Tails, you're dealing with the Akatsuki now. Prepare for blood."**

"S-stop making me so nervous," Tails said, his voice shaking. "Is this guy really that bad?

"Hi, there! My name is Tobi. Nice to meetcha," the ninja greeted him politely with a wave. "It seems that Deidara-senpai is busy at the moment so it will be my job to capture you. Please don't resist and make this take a long time or else Senpai will scream at me. He's really really scary when he gets mad. He got beaten up pretty badly already, so he'll probably be mad anyway, but we shouldn't make him any madder."

Tails didn't know what to make of this encounter. The guy sounded so goofy the way he talked. Nowhere near as threatening as the other shinobi. Whatever abilities this Akatsuki had, he had no outward way of showing them. His face certainly wasn't going to say anything about him. That weird full face mask revealed only a head of dark hair and a single eyehole at the endpoint of the spiral circling around his orange mask. Tails squinted to see if he could see anything through that hole in Tobi's mask, but he made out nothing _"Does he only have one?" _he wondered.

"I waited until I was sure that Shadow and Sonic would be out of the way before coming to get you," Tobi said and he stepped closer. "But now that we're alone…" he said ominously. "Come! We must kung fu fight!" his tone dropped drastically as he got into and exaggerated fighting stance.

"That's uh…not a very effective way to fight," Tails said. While not an expert martial artist, Tails easily recognized that Tobi had assumed the well known Crane style kick stance by standing on one foot and raising his hands high in the air.

Not paying any attention, Tobi dashed suddenly to begin the fight.

Tails sidestepped a jump kick from Tobi. Taking advantage of the wide opening, he flew upwards and let loose a few flying punches and kicks, knocking Tobi to the floor. The fight began and ended in five seconds.

"Don't make me mad, Tails-kun," Tobi warned as he dusted himself off. You would regret it. For I am Tobi…" he paused dramatically, "…Kyuubi Master!"

Tobi unleashed a blindingly fast burst of speed and charged at Tails again. The unexpected change in speed caught Tails off guard, allowing Tobi to swipe at his tails with one hand and catch them both in his grip.

"Yes! I can't wait to show Deidara-senpai! I caught him!" Tobi cheered and started to dance, holding Tails upside down from his tails like he was a hunting trophy. Tails crossed his arms and groaned as he hung there. Her couldn't believe he caught by this joker.

"Nothing personal against you, little guy," Tobi held the captured kitsune up to his face, "but it's the Akatsuki's mission to take you in."

"Take this in!" Tails yelled defiantly and jabbed his finger as hard as he could through Tobi's eyehole.

"OWWWW!" Tobi dropped the tails from his hand and fell over writhing in pain. "My eye! You poked me in the eye! I'm not supposed to get anything in it. Now I can't see! Help me, Senpai."

"Well, that was easy enough," Tails said, slightly confused.

"Hey, I heard you!" Tobi shouted futilely grasping his hands through the air in a sad attempt to recapture the fox, causing him to trip and fall on his face. He got up as fast as he could and bumbled around like a maniac, still hoping to catch the kitsune.

"Is this guy for real?" Tails scratched the back of his head. Having had enough of Tobi, Tails began to fly off. He almost felt sorry for the Akatsuki organization if this was the kind of people they used, but he hoped that all the Akatsuki were pushovers like that guy.

"This is not over yet. I didn't get a chance to use my awesome killer nuclear combo of death yet," Tobi said. As he made another charge for the fox, Tails bashed his monkey wrench into Tobi's face, knocking him back into a pile of machinery.

"I don't want to fight you anymore," Tails murmured. "You're breaking my stuff…"

"Haha! That's just the beginning."

"Look. I kinda got a lot of stuff to do now. My friends need my help so I'm leaving."

"Itachi! Itachi! Our target's getting away. I need backup," Tobi cried loudly.

"Itachi?" Tails asked in a chilled tone. He felt his nerves freeze up again. "He's…here?"

"He's coming right now," Tobi said.

Somehow, the room darkened as if to make way for the next Akatsuki. A strong gust of wind blew through the trees as the next Akatsuki stepped forward through the doorway.

It was easy to see the Uchiha family resemblance. The guy was easily recognized as Sasuke's older brother, but there was something so different about him. The same Sharingan eyes were present, but they held none of the rage and hate that Tails witnessed in the man's little brother. In fact, he looked almost tired, as if nothing could ever excite him. His face appeared sunken in with a mark running down each side of his face like scars.

"I can tell that you already know who I am and why I'm here," Itachi spoke, pointing one finger in his direction. "We would like you to come with us right away."

Tails yelped and jumped into the seat of his plane. Something in his head was telling to keep his distance from this guy.

"Oh man, Itachi. I'm glad you're here," Tobi said. "It'll take all your talents to capture this kid. He's a tough one."

"I would hardly worry about that."

"You're just saying that because you didn't fight him. He's quite strong. I think that last blow fused my mask to my face. I might never be able to take it off again."

"I am aware that he has many hidden powers. We will wait for Kisame to come, and then we will evaluate this jinchuuriki's true strength."

"Yeah, so where is the big man, anyway?"

"I sent him ahead of me. He should be here by now."

"I'm right here," a voice came from the opposite door of the workshop connected to the kitchen. Now Tails was surrounded by Akatsuki on both sides.

Tails spun around to see a hulking figure enter the workshop. A giant blue skinned Akatsuki nin ducked below the top of the doorway to fit himself and the humongous weapon slung across his back. One arm gripped the skull adorned handle. The other held a bottle of soda in hand while a bag of chips lay tightly tucked under his arm.

"HOLY HABANERO CHILI DOGS! THAT'S A BIG-ASS SWORD!"

"Ah, you like my Samehada, don't you?" Kisame twirled his signature weapon around proudly. "I guess you guys on Mobius don't often see killing instruments like these, do you?"

"What were you doing there, Kisame?" Itachi asked.

"I decided to get a snack," he replied, grabbing a handful of chips and popping them into his mouth, munching loudly.

"That's not what we're here for," Itachi said coldly.

"Yeah, but when Tobi came in I decided to sit back and watch him make a fool of himself as he got beaten around by this fox. You should've seen it," he let out a hearty laugh. "It was a real riot."

"It's not funny," Tobi pouted. "He went straight for my eye and nearly blinded me. This was worse than the time Itachi spilled pudding in my eye…"

"That never happened," Itachi said, not amused.

"Yes it did! And you know I have a sensitive eye. Even Deidara-senpai won't attack me there."

"Why don't you just wear goggles?" Kisame asked.

"I used to own a good pair, but I can't remember what happened to them."

"Yeah, well you know Itachi doesn't see so well. You really have to watch out for him," Kisame said.

"They're so weird," Tails muttered. "It's like they forgot I'm here."

"**These are the deadliest members in Akatsuki," **Kyuubi said. **"They obviously don't consider you a threat."**

"That's their mistake. Come on, Kyuubi! Let's show them our power."

**No good, Tails," **Kyuubi said. **"That bandaged thing on the big guy is Hoshikagi Kisame's sword, the Samehada. He's one of the Seven Legendary Swordsmen of the Mist. Normally, this would mean nothing to me, but his sword can eat his enemies' chakra."**

"So there's no way I can transform because he'll just steal all my chakra?"

"**Exactly. That's why this team has captured so many bijuu already. I am one of the last."**

"_The shark guy is literally armed to the teeth and he can steal my chakra. I don't stand a chance against these guys…unless I can get some cool weapon."_

"Don't feel down because of what happened, Tobi," Kisame continued their conversation. "Even though you didn't actually capture the jinchuuriki, you've made this trip to Mobius a lot more enjoyable. Now you can relax and see how the elite members of Akatsuki do their work. Just watch while I take this kid out in two seconds. "

"That's what you think, shark brains!" Tails jumped up on top of his plane and shot an angry finger at Kisame. His voice brimmed with confidence as he looked down on the Akatsuki members, his tails beating behind him furiously. "No way am I letting you losers take me!"

A large sharky grin appeared over Kisame's face. "It's so cute how serious he looks. He really doesn't want to be captured. For that, I think I'll forget about cutting off his limbs."

"Do whatever you want," Itachi said in a bored tone. "Just be careful that he comes with us alive."

"**This isn't a good pinch for any jinchuuriki to be in. You've got speedy legs, Tails. Use them!"**

Tails nodded and looked towards the door. All he had to do was bolt out of the workshop, avoid three Akatsukis, and run like hell.

"YAARH!" Kisame roared and swung his lethal sword. Spinning his namesakes, Tails flew above the sword's arc and landed straight on Kisame's head. Before the shark man could make his next attack, Tails bounced off and fled out the doors.

"You're just wasting your energy," Kisame called out. "Why did you think we let you run away so easily? It takes just one look into Itachi's eyes and it's all over."

Tails ignored him and kept flying. He flew straight into the forests of the Mystic Ruins, not stopping until Kisame's voice was out of range.

"I know my way through these woods blindfolded," Tails told himself as he plopped under a tree to catch his breath. "Hopefully, I can buy some time before they can find me. Sonic always knows what to do in times like this. If he was here right now I'll bet he'd—"

A thunderbolt cracked across the sky like a brilliant white blade that slashed the heavens in half. Tails shrieked, shutting his eyes tight and covering his ears against the things that he feared most in the world. Heavy rumbling storm clouds joined together to plunge the Mystic Ruins into darkness. The roaring of a tremendous windstorm blew mercilessly into the trees.

Storm jutsus, Tails thought. It was only a matter of time before somebody would come along and bust those out. Tails shielded his body with his Tails when he saw the big droplets of rain pelt him from the sky.

"Kaw!" a crow cried and perched itself on a tree branch opposite of Tails. Its steely eyes stared down, watching him. Soon, Tails picked up the sound of the flapping of many wings. Above him, dozens of crows circled around the tree. Why were those crows here? Tails wondered if they were summoned, but after a second look, he saw that they were focused on something in the tree.

Another lightning flash revealed the answer to Tails and his eyes widened in pure terror.

"Sonic…" Tails gasped. Sonic the Hedgehog was hanging limp against the tree, impaled to the bark with several kunai. His stomach was slashed wide open, leaving his guts to spill out. The crows swarmed the corpse, tugging at his intestines.

Tails' mouth was wide open, but no scream came out. Instead, he used that energy to break into a run. A wave of nausea and dizziness swept over him, leaving with no strength to fly. In the thick darkness of the storm drenched trees, he couldn't see much, but he barely noticed a red gleam from something in the distance.

He didn't stop running. Someone was after him for sure. He could taste the overpowering killing intent reaching deep into his head, pulling out his worst nightmares.

Tails sharp ears picked up something whizzing through the air. Then he felt something sharp plunge into his back. The searing pain of being knifed in the back made him stumble forward where he fell face first into the muddy earth. He reached back to pull out whatever was lodged in his back. He yelped out loud from the pain of tearing metal out of flesh. Tails looked to his hand to find a bloody shuriken.

The flapping of crows' wings grew louder and closer. They swarmed together, hovering above Tails, forming the shape of a dark haired man in a darker cloak. In his eyes, he saw the red gleam and the unmistakable markings of the three black tomoes.

"There's no reason to run anymore, Tails-kun," Itachi said. His quiet voice somehow flowed clearly through the crazed flapping of the wings.

Tails stood up on his two feet and stared straight into the face of death. _"It takes just one look into Itachi's eyes and it's all over_," Tails remembered what Kisame said. He had been under the sharingan's effects right when he first saw Itachi.

Those red eyes locked onto the sapphire blue of his prey. "If you do not come, then we will break you apart, both your body and will, and carry you back to Akatsuki."

They already did that, but Tails could tell from those eyes that Itachi could do a lot more things. Much worse things.

"I won't—" Tails' words were cut off by a cough of blood and he fell down to his knees.

"Then you leave us no choice." Itachi's body dispersed as the crows flew away. Then the woods started to rumble.

The largest trees in the forest shattered into splinters as Kisame rushed in with his massive sword, cutting down everything that stood between him and the kitsune.

"I'm grateful to Itachi that he saved a little bit for me," the towering shark monster looked down on the little fox. "I'm not sure what kind of spooky things he made you see, but you look really shaken up. Makes me feel a little sorry for you. Just a little." Tails had to strain his neck to look all the way up at Kisame's face. His beady little eyes gave off their own bloodlust. Especially with that row of teeth.

Kisame raised Samehada where its shadow fell over Tails. The strain he placed on it by tearing down those trees loosened the bandages until they fell away revealing a bulky sword unlike anything Tails had ever seen before. There was no blade. It was more of a giant metal club covered in razor sharp scales.

"You may have been impressed by my sword, but no one can truly appreciate Samehada's greatness unless they get to witness it in action. I'm going to grant you that honor."

With the cry of a demon, Kisame brought his sword down into the ground. Tails dodged away in time, but the seismic shockwave from the heavy blow threw him off balance. How in the world Kisame expected to bring Tails in alive was beyond him, but this wasn't the time to find out.

"Hmph. You're lucky. I'm not used to fighting targets this small. But don't push it. Samehada can sense your blood flow. It tells me that you're getting slower, more sluggish. You can't run. You're breathing is shallow. You can barely keep your eyes open."

"_He's right. I'm out of time. It's time to do it now." _Putting his hands together, Tails molded the demon's red chakra around him.

Taking on a life of its own, Kisame's giant katana started to pulse. Instantly, Tails chakra got yanked from his body and sucked into the blade. The sword scales shifted around like it was chewing on its meal.

"Such a terrifying chakra inside such a small container. Only my Samehada can withstand its power," Kisame said proudly. "Now that it's out of the way, I'm going to show you what it feels like to have your fur shaved off along with your flesh. It's not something anyone should have to live through, but you don't have much choice there."

Tails shut his eyes tightly. He felt the shadow of the monster sword coming down on top of him, but he stopped when he felt the earth around him vibrating.

"_Something's coming," _Kisame knew how Samehada felt. _"It's big whatever it is. It's got a shitload of chakra, too."_

From the darkness of the woods, a red blur shot at Kisame, clashing into Samehada and knocking it out of his hand. Kisame stared at his now empty hand in disbelief in rage. Blood ran freely down his hand. He held onto his sword as hard as he could but that still wasn't enough. The strain left a deep gash in his hand. Separating Kisame from his sword was no easy feat, but this new enemy was strong enough to do it. Stronger than him.

A demonic roar to match the overwhelming chakra made Kisame's gills flare. The enemy was coming to reveal itself. Tails and Kisame both turned in the direction if where the demonic aura was coming from. Soon, they saw the silhouette of a fox.

A fox with nine tails.

Despite the wave of killing intent pouring through the air, or perhaps because of it, Kisame grinned and uprooted a tree from the earth and wielded it with both hands like a gigantic staff.

"This just got a lot more interesting," Kisame said as he swung the enormous staff at the demon.

The demon lashed all with its tails, coming down in nine red arcs. Kisame raised his tree in defense. An odd metallic clash ringed in his ears when the attack decimated the tree into sawdust.

As the dust cleared, the demon stepped slowly stepped forward, moving into plain view before Kisame. Now that he looked at it, he saw that it was much smaller than the real Kyuubi was supposed to be, but the red chakra was there. It was similar to the way he always imagined the Kyuubi to look like. A fox covered from head to tails in red fur, but where there should have been fur, there was a gleaming red metal. Just this time it was emanating from a machine. A machine made in the image of the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

"A robot!"

"Whoa! That was crazier than I thought it would be," Tails said in amazement. It was more perfect than he could have imagined. Tails saw countless designs of robots in all shapes and sizes, but there was never a machine like this before. The creature moved so quickly, so smoothly. For all Robotnik's genius, the doctor only made chunky, ugly looking robots. He couldn't have dreamt of building anything like this. Such a machine shouldn't be able to exist for at least another thousand years.

"What? You mean you're responsible for this? Damn! You'll pay for that!" Stripped of his sword, Kisame knew his disadvantages well. Calling on his enormous chakra, he leapt high into the canopy of the trees to take the high ground in this battle.

Even when hidden well in the dense foliage, Mecha Kyuubi took a bounding step forward and leered his glowing red fox eyes at the blue shark. **"Is this the shrimp that's been bothering you?" **he asked Tails.

"_It spoke?" _ The creature's unworldly metallic voice made Kisame's blood turned colder. Still, the legendary shark demon of the Mist could not simply sit back while someone called _him_ a shrimp.

"**I would gladly eat you," **he growled, **"But in this body I cannot taste, nor do I hunger. Yet, you have disturbed my vessel and for that, you must die."**

"My my, this is a quite a predicament I'm in," Kisame said while glaring directly into the robotic eyes. "And I'll have to destroy you without my sword, too."

The robot fox's body opened up to reveal a control room inside. **"Climb inside, kit. I will keep you protected and healed while you operate the controls. I'm sure you'll figure them out quickly as this was your idea after all."**

Tails nodded and scrambled into the robot's chamber. One push of a button and the entrance sealed shut. The dark inside of the machine was bathed in red light from the demon's chakra. Tails felt the effects of its healing effects immediately, but his attention was mostly drawn to the advanced controls around him. "Wow! There's a lot of weapons in this machine. I've got to try them all out."

"Come back here, kit. Don't make me tear open that tin can and yank you out from there." Kisame warned.

The machine Kyuubi's eyes burned a fierce red glow. **"You'd better run back to the clam shell you crawled out from," **he snarled and with a twirl of his claws, several tubes protruded from his paws and immediately launched jets of white hot flame to incinerate the fish ninja.

"**Suishouha no jutsu!" (Great Water Wave) **Kisame countered by summoning a giant wave that crashed into the flame jets, clouding the forest with a thick steam.

"**I'm going to cut off your head and stuff you into a sardine pack!" **Mecha Kyuubi growled through the mist. Visibility was no problem for Kisame and they both spotted each other at the same time. All nine tails waved about frantically. One caught him off guard and sent him back to the ground. As he got to his feet, Kisame heard a slick metallic hiss. Nine of them in rhythmic succession. Each tail, armed with its own razor sharp blades came at their target all at once, trying to impale and fillet him to death. Kisame rolled evasively as the weapons came down. Each blade pierced a deep hole in the ground, right where his body used to be. The Kyuubi sent them down with surprising speed giving Kisame no chance to get up.

Where was that damn Samehada?

Kisame racked his brain, trying to think of any other weaknesses this creature might have, but those thoughts were interrupted when he felt the ground vibrate under his back. To his shock, a hidden blade pierced through his backside, emerging from his chest. Kisame's eyes widened in rare horror as he saw the tail sword drip his own blood off the shimmering blade. That demon must have dug his tail into the earth and performed a sneak attack by tunneling up.

"This won't kill me," Kisame gurgled blood from his mouth as he spoke calmly. "I've suffered through worse."

The tail blade quickly disappeared back into the ground, allowing Kisame to finally stand up again. He gripped his chest to stop the blood flow, but otherwise he showed no outward sign of pain. Such a position was unacceptable in front of an enemy. Itachi would have suggested that he run away at this point. That might've worked with other opponents, but this demon would just end up chasing him anyway. The only way out was to find his missing sword, bring that machine down, and capture the fox. Gathering more chakra around his body, the swordsman ran through the forest in an intense burst of speed, away from the Kyuubi. Not to run away, but because he heard the sword calling to him. All he had to do was retrieve it.

"What's with this guy?" Tails watched the shark man run. "He's moving around like he's not hurt at all."

"**This man is a Swordsman of the Mist. Those who have earned the title have mastered the art of pain so well that it barely fazes them."**

Mecha Kyuubi simply laughed and flickered over in front of Kisame. Before he could react, the demon robot's claws shifted shape and twisted into a high tech type gun barrel. A super focused ray of laser light fired straight into Kisame's eyes.

"YAAARGH!" the shark man screamed and buried his face into his hand. The pain in his eyes was excruciating and new to him. No eye could have withstood that laser blast. Disoriented, he collapsed to the ground on his knees. The overwhelming pain caused flashing spots of light to appear behind his tightly shut eyelids. The earth trembled beneath him and Kisame knew that the Kyuubi was readying another attack. He heard the low growl of its voice. Ignoring the burning, he forced his eyelids open to confront the kitsune and still all he saw was bright spots against black.

He couldn't see. He tried to push out the thought if whether this condition was permanent or not. The kitsune was his main problem. Normally, if his opponent were flesh, he could listen for the rhythm of the heartbeat, or smell their blood. For the machine, he could do neither. Worse, this robot knew how to move without making a sound.

"I'll drown you!" Kisame roared and readied his hand seals to for an emergency jutsu.

"**Be gone, you miserable little guppy," **Mecha Kyuubi's growled softly until his voice felt silent.

And then Kisame felt a new sensation. The pressure in the air started to change. He felt the air ripple with power. After powering up with enough red chakra, the demon robot unleashed a dense beam of raw energy. Kisame managed to see the blast come straight for him like a shooting star. The blaze of red light struck him squarely in the stomach and sent him flying backwards. Not even crashing through every the tree trunks could slow his flight. He just kept on plowing through everything in his path, making a large hole in the middle of the trees and he didn't stop until his body impacted with a large boulder with a sickening crunch. Amazingly, Kisame summoned the strength to stand up, but couldn't move fast enough when nine uprooted trees were hurled in on top of him. The whole forest or what was left of it, reverberated as Kisame was buried by a ton of lumber.

"Wow! I'd say he's sushi by now," Tails said.

"**That means we're done," **Kyuubi managed a feral looking smile. "**Let's fly out of here. You can change the machine back to its true form and back at will if you like. It will help conserve chakra." **

"Good idea," Tails nodded. Having maneuvered his way around the controls, he pushed the button that instantly morphed the robot Kyuubi's back into the innocent looking biplane with Tails himself seated comfortably in the pilot seat. Everything was normal again. As cool as being a demon mech pilot was, Tails couldn't have been more happy to be flying with the Tornado again.

Through the forest of the Mystic Ruins, Itachi made his way to the spot where he last saw of Kisame blasted and buried under rocks and trees.

"Kisame, are you dead?"

"Only you would so simply ask a question like that," Kisame, who was very much alive, groaned and dug his battered body from under the debris. "I bet I look dead, though. I'm gonna be as blind as you one of these days," he said to a vaguely black shape that he was sure was Itachi.

"It was your fault for being over excessive," Itachi said sternly. "I will not sympathize with you."

"Yeah, I know you better than that. I'm not going to ask to cry on your shoulder. What I am going to ask is if you have any idea as to what just happened because I know you were watching."

"Apparently, he learned to control the demon's chakra in such a way that could infuse his creations to give them aspects of the Kyuubi. When we cornered him in the workshop, he knew he couldn't attack us head on, so he must have manipulated his Tornado plane using the Nine Tails' chakra. That kind of control transformed it into the Mecha Kyuubi. You're lucky he didn't have an even bigger machine available."

"Lucky?" Kisame snorted. "I almost died! And I was sure that he would be the easier way to capture the Kyuubi. Now look at how messy things have gotten."

"There's no reason to be angry," Itachi said. "We didn't know what his capabilities were. Go find your sword and we'll regroup."

"It never gets any simpler, does it?" Kisame complained as he searched the mess of broken down lumber for his sword. "We should've been half way into sealing that bijuu into the statue by now."

"You can't expect things to go perfectly when you're in an unfamiliar universe," Itachi reasoned. "We thought we knew everything about Naruto, but even though they house the same demon, we're still dealing with two very different jinchuuriki."

"And to think I considered going easy on him," Kisame grumbled sourly. "You should've just used your Tsukiyomi on him and been done with it."

"If I were to use that technique, I'm sure the mental stress would have killed him."

"I guess that's our big disadvantage. We're just too dangerous sometimes, heheheh," Kisame featured a large grin. While it was always a frightening experience to see the shark man's teeth, this time even Itachi's face showed some discomfort.

"You're missing a tooth," Itachi informed him.

"What!?" Kisame felt around his mouth with his tongue and to his horror, discovered a gap somewhere in his front teeth. "Oh, hell no! You know what this means, Itachi? This jinchuuriki killed your little brother and now he busted out one of my teeth. We both have a very serious vendetta against him."

Itachi leered at Kisame vindictively. "Don't be foolish, Kisame. We do not move for revenge. Our goals aim much higher." Relaxing his Sharingan gaze, Itachi turned away and looked towards the sky.

"Hmph. If only Tobi understood something like that," Kisame grunted. "From the looks of things, he must have been so scared by that robot Kyuubi that he ran for his life, as usual."

"We will find some use for him later," Itachi said. "He's in the Akatsuki for a reason. For now, we have to get ready. The Leader will contact us soon."

A warm yellow sun and a soothing breeze greeted Tails when he got back high into the air. The environment of the open clear skies always had a therapeutic effect on Tails. In just a few minutes, Tails had all but forgotten the ordeal he suffered at the hands of the Akatsuki. Itachi's nightmare world of dark storms and death was over.

He was so relaxed that he didn't even want to bother flying the plane. Rather, he left the Tornado on autopilot while he laid his back on top of the plane with his face to the sky. He stayed that way unmoving in a Zen like trance.

"**You sure seem in a good mood," **Kyuubi said

"I'm always happy when I'm flying up here," Tails said cheerfully. "If I stay on the ground for too long, I get really antsy. But this time, it's more than that. When Itachi put me in that genjutsu, I thought I was dead. I thought I'd never see the sky again. But everything turned around for us and we escaped.

"**Heh, you liked the feeling of overpowering and nearly killing that Akatsuki nin, didn't you?"**

"Well…yeah," Tails answered uneasily. "I guess I did."

"**Relax, Tails. Who wouldn't be proud about defeating the most vicious swordsman in the Mist?"**

"These new demon powers are cool and everything. We really took care of that shark guy. I feel kinda bad that we went and destroyed half the Mystic Ruins like that. I always liked that forest."

"**What are you worrying about?" **Kyuubi scoffed.** "The trees will grow back in a hundred years or so."**

"A hundred years? That's like forever!"

"**Not for those who possess the gift of eternal life. Now there's a new ability I think you'll enjoy immensely."**

"WHAT!?" The surge of excitement when he heard this news that Tails lost all balance and tumbled off his own plane. As he twirled his tails to fly back to the plane, he swore he heard Kyuubi laugh inside his head. "I'm going to be immortal?"

"**Eventually, yes. That's just another reason why freeing me is in your best interests." **

Tails started to frown as he thought that over. "That means Shadow is the only guy who will keep me company for all eternity. Man, that's pretty depressing when you think about it."

"**You'll get used to it. Eternal life can be a lot of fun if you know how to spend it. All you have to do is watch out for those pesky sealing jutsus and we'll be fine. There's so much I can't wait to do when I become free of this cage. There's so much we both can do. If you think the sky is interesting, I'll show you whole new worlds for you to explore. But all that will have to wait until we eliminate the Akatsuki members one at a time."**

"So sooner or later, we're gonna have to face Itachi. He won't be so easy to beat, will he?"

"**No. We will save him for last when we're ready. I anticipate he will be our most difficult adversary. Him and Tobi, too."**

"Tobi? Are you sure that was him he made you sense the evil chakra. He doesn't seem scary at all."

"**Don't let appearances like that fool you. The most important rule in the shinobi world is that you must look underneath the underneath."**

"Look underneath the underneath?" A sly grin curled around Tails' mouth. "That sounds so perverted."

"**Heheh," **Kyuubi chuckled. **"You're definitely thinking like a demon kitsune now. Just don't lose your focus. We've got some very nasty shinobi on our kill list."**

**End Chapter 12 **

**Next chapter: I wrote many parts of the next chapter, thinking it would be part of this one, but it got pretty big, so I think it deserves a separate chapter. Don't miss the climactic Deidara vs. Sai battle. Coming real soon! **

"


	13. Demon Arts

**Ho Ho Ho! Santa's got one more present for all of you good readers! Lucky number Chapter 13 is here. This one's much longer than normal! It's so big that it's ready to explode. KATSU! **

**Dragon Man 180: **At first, I thought that fighting inside a mech wouldn't be Naruto's style, but thinking it over, I see now that he would really like it, especially since it can't harm him like the tailed transformations.

**oOo-Kaede Higuchi-oOo: **Glad you though this was such a funny chapter. Tobi and Kisame really made it that way. They were a lot of fun to write.

**Angelus-alvus:**Thanks so much. I'm really happy to hear that :D

**rikku92:**It was boring? I guess that means I need to improve my writing skillz a bit more. I really hope you don't find this chapter boring. I tried to make it as exciting as I could. And nope, I wouldn't really kill off Sonic. I also thought about a part where the Naruto gang meet Princess Elise, so that might happen.

**Shika Kev Prower: **Glad you liked the Mecha Kyuubi. And don't worry about Kisame. It turns out that sharks grow back their teeth in minutes.

**Asher Tye: **Oh, yeah. Sonic won't feel too happy if Tails ever starts going out of control. That'll definitely be a dark turn for their relationship, but I think at this point, Sonic is more pissed at the Akatsuki for trying to capture his best bud. As for Tobi…he's an interesting guy. He's the new guy in Akatsuki and he hasn't quite been able to fit in, but his true identity is still a mystery.

**Blue Mage Quartet: **Poor Tails must've thought Sonic was dead for awhile, too. Itachi's genjutsus are pretty traumatizing stuff. Good thing the Kyuubi-bot was there to help.

**TheShamanMaster:**Thanks! I hope you like these next fight scenes too.

**Authoress Rachizzle: **Okay, to answer Sonic's death part, Itachi used a genjutsu, but it was a regular one, not the Mangekyou Sharingan. I hope that explains everything. Happy reading with this chapter!(disappears before she sees how many words there are)

**Victizzle.DUH:**Tobi's voice can be annoying but it fits him so well! He's so cool, I love writing him.

**Belletiger:**Don't feel too bad for Kisame. He's getting a replacement tooth. As for Mecha Kyuubi, there'll be lots more of him.

**Kitty and Amethyst: **Deidara's one of my favorites, too. Read on to see if he survives. I like him a lot, so if he does die, I will make sure he gets a really cool death.

**TC chan: **Itachi used a regular genjutsu on Tails, so it was easy for Kyuubi to help him out. But with Tails and Shadow together forever…I wonder who will crack first. And for Pain, I can't wait to introduce him!

**star's dreams: **Thanks for wishing me luck! I always need it!

**hikarikyuubi:**Heh, Thanks. :D

**Lycropath:**Yeah, I don't know what it is about Tails. There's just something that makes me think he's a bit of a perv. Maybe it's just something about foxes. He's definitely going to meet Jiraiya someday. Maybe he'll aid him in his research. Anyway, good news for Kisame, although his pride that's the most damaged. He and Itachi do make a great comedic duo. I'll have to do something about that Shikamaru story of mine one day. Right now, I really wanna update this story more.

**Insane-Squirrel:**If it's a long chapter you like, this time, you won't be disappointed. I am planning something with NaruxHina, so keep your eyes peeled for that. It's my favorite pairing, too. It seems to be almost everyone's favorite. As for Sasuke…I can't spoil what's gonna happen later, but I promise that Sasuke's part in this story isn't over.

**Imcool34567:**Thanks. Glad ya like it!

**Chapter 13: Demon Arts**

Ino always felt that the life of a medic ninja would be a boring one. In her long and arduous studies of precise chakra control, she showed less enthusiasm than Shikamaru to the point where she caught herself muttering how troublesome these endless, tedious medical lessons were.

It wasn't exactly her finest moment when she woke up one day to find her diagrams of human anatomy all smothered and sticky with her drool just as the big breasted shadow of one pissed off Tsunade loomed above her. It was those times that made Ino wish she could be learning something more glamorous, like elemental shaping with an instructor who wasn't so strict. At least Kakashi wouldn't have bashed her skull in for arriving late to a class. It didn't help that she could never measure up to Sakura's standard of chakra control.

But all that was behind her now that she possessed the body of a super fast hedgehog infused with the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds. As soon as she took over Sonic the Hedgehog's body, she found herself thrust into the position of the world's greatest hero. It was a role she never thought she'd take and it was even more exciting than she could have imagined. It was no different then if she were named the Hokage.

Together with Sakura and Shadow, Ino was now part of the greatest medical team in the history of Mobius. Since Station Square was leveled by the combined power of a psycho Akatsuki bomber, Orochimaru, and the Four-tailed Kyuubi, the team relocated to the Central City Hospital where they worked to treat as any victims of the demon crisis as they could,

"Time to see how much stronger I've become" she said to herself as she stood over the stiff body of Captain Yamato. Ino gave in to the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds and released an overabundance of chaos energy that flooded into Yamato, soaking its healing power into every cell in his body.

It was so effective that his unconscious eyes flared open instantly in their ghoulish form, much to Ino's shock.

"Eeek! Don't ever do that!" Ino screeched and fell over in fright. "You could give someone a heart attack!"

"Huh?" Yamato leapt back to his feet and stood in a defensive position. "Sonic the hedgehog? What's going on here? Where am I?" he lowered his hand to his weapon's pouch. "You just helped me, yet last I remember you tried to kill me. Have you been brought back to normal?"

"Not exactly, Tenzou," Kakashi stepped into his room, warmly addressing Yamato by his real name. "Relax and I'll tell you everything…"

While Ino went off to make some more rounds to spread her powers around the hospital, Kakashi and Yamato exchanged reports of everything that had seen and experienced in detail.

"So Naruto's been returned back to normal, eh?" Yamato asked. "That's good to know."

"Not as good as you'd think," Kakashi said. "Physically, Naruto will be fine. But this time, all of Naruto's friends know his secret. He transformed right before their eyes into the thing they were taught to fear most. They've been taking it well so far and Naruto has no memory of his transformation, as expected. Should he ever find out that he killed so many people as the four tailed Kyuubi, there's no telling how he'd react," he added gravely. "He's already suffered enough from the knowledge of Sasuke's death."

"So that's how it is," Yamato nodded solemnly. "Kakashi-senpai, I'd like to speak with Naruto as soon as possible. We must talk to him about Tails."

"This is about the Kyuubi's seal, isn't it?"

"This is beyond my abilities," Yamato admitted. His eyes were wide and serious. "It's come to the point where we can no longer simply suppress the demon fox anymore. Kyuubi is smart. He's planning something and he's using Tails to help him. The worst thing that could happen is if Naruto and Tails see each other as enemies," he said gravely. "Tails could kill him simply by removing the seal."

"But Tails is not the enemy. At least not yet," Kakashi said in a dark tone. "I know that if left unchecked, he could willingly release the Kyuubi. You're thinking we should find a way to channel Tails' energies productively and I agree. In fact, he might be the solution we've been looking for."

As the two jounins headed down the hallway, they met up with Sakura whose arms were filled with bottles of various medicines and potions, all for Naruto.

"Oi, Sakura, is Naruto holding up well?" Kakashi asked.

"Now that his skin is back on, he's doing a lot better. I was just gonna go check up on him now," she said as she prepared to open the door. The pile of glass bottles clinked together as she worked to open the door to Naruto's room with her foot.

The second Sakura stepped into the room and saw what was inside, she gasped as all her medicine fell from her hands and shattered on the floor.

"He's gone!"

Kakashi lifted up his head plate to reveal his Sharingan eye and he gazed intently at Naruto's empty bed. All that was left was a fine red mist.

"What a troublesome thing to do," Shikamaru, who happened to be walking by, sighed lazily. He stuck his hands in his pockets and leaned his head back to the wall. "Now we're going to have to find him. I'm most likely going to be sent after him to make sure he doesn't die. I can just hear what they're going to say:"

"Shikamaru, gather your squad and go after Naruto. Make sure he doesn't do anything reckless," he muttered under his breath. "That's what they'll tell me."

"Shikamaru, gather your squad and go after Naruto. Make sure he doesn't do anything reckless," Kakashi ordered.

"Yeah, yeah," he groaned. "So where is my squad?"

In no time at all, Ino the Hedgehog appeared in flash of light, bringing Chouji along with her. "I heard everything," she said quickly. "We'll leave right away."

Shikamaru breathed out a low moan.

"Don't look so glum Shikamaru," Ino chirped. "We'll use my chaos control to move faster than the speed of light. We'll find him in a sec,"

"Chaos control? I don't like the sound of that at all. What if my molecules get rearranged in the wrong order and my head goes on backwards or something?"

"None of that is going to happen. Chaos control is perfectly safe. I've already done it a couple times."

"It's all right, Shikamaru," Chouji said, giving a reassuring smile. "I just tried it with Ino and I can say it's safe.

Shikamaru accepted that. If he couldn't trust Chouji, who could he trust?

"I guess it has to be done," he admitted. "Besides, Temari is still out there. I wonder what's happened with her."

"Be careful, guys," Kakashi warned. "Naruto didn't leave here on his own. Somebody took him."

* * *

_Several Minutes Earlier…_

"Ouch!" Tails cried as the sharp point of a kunai pricked his index finger, causing a red drop to bleed through his white glove.

"**It seems that every person I get stuck with ends up being a hopeless klutz, **the Kyuubi sighed. **"What are you doing playing with those weapons, anyway? Why aren't we going on our rampage?" **Kyuubi made no effort to hide the impatience in his growl. Sitting in the grassy fields on the outskirts of Station Square, Mecha Kyuubi fixed his gaze n the city.

"Just gimme a sec" Tails said, reaching his hand into a pack filled with several rows of kunai. "I'm preparing for battle. It was really nice of Kakashi-sensei to give me this set of kunai, and even though he didn't have time to teach me, I think I got the gist of how to use 'em. But that's not going to be enough to beat the Akatsuki," he said as he tinkered away. Working with his trusty toolbox at his side, he started taking things apart and putting them together with other parts. Every once in awhile, Tails would put down his tools and he would pick up a notebook and start to draw in it.

"**And what is that for?"**

"Oh, this? This is another thing I'm working on. I'm trying to draw diagrams of the different ninja techniques I've seen everybody doing," Tails explained while he continued to scribble away. "Every time they let loose those moves, they use some type of hand signal. All you need to do a jutsu is chakra and those signs, right. So if I can do those same hand signs…"

"**Ah, so you're lookin' to learn some jutus, eh?"**

Tails made a beaming smile and gave an exaggerated nod.

"**That won't be so easy, even for a talented guy like you. You're going to need a sensei who can teach these jutsus."**

"But don't you know all kinds of jutsus, Kyuubi?" Tails asked.

"**You're not ready to learn the kinds of techniques I know," **Kyuubi said firmly. **Most of them are so dangerous and evil that just knowing the names alone could cause your internal organs to bleed out your eye sockets while your skeleton leaps right out of your body and crumbles to ashes. "**

"Cool…" Tails exhaled, his eyes grew as wide as they could be.

"**Look, if you really want to learn some jutsus, there's a method you can use to learn a few useful ones in only minutes. All you need is the right teacher. Someone who's chakra signature is similar to your own."**

"Naruto?"

"**You catch on quickly, kit. Now that he learned of his Uchiha friend's death, Naruto can forget about him and he can start doing something useful for us."**

"I guess if we're both still alive, then Shadow listened to me and didn't kill Naruto or anything," Tails nodded slowly to himself. "That's good, but how am I supposed to find him?"

"**Summon him," **Kyuubi answered.** "Because you two are bound through me, you can naturally call him here. No seals are needed. Just reach out to him in your mind and then slam your hand on the ground."**

"For real? If I do that, he'll appear right in front of me in a big cloud of smoke?"

"**No matter where he is," **Kyuubi nodded.

"All right. I'm gonna do it," Tails declared excitedly. He closed his eyes and concentrated. He descended down into the darkest parts of his mindscape, deep into the dungeon where the true form of Kyuubi no Kitsune lay sealed away. Slamming his hand on the ground, a magic seal formed.

Naruto wasn't sure how long he was standing here, nor could he remember what exactly happened before. He stepped through the flooded hallways of the dimly lit dungeon, not going anywhere in particular. He was just trying to remember what happened. He remembered chasing after Orochimaru. Sonic the Hedgehog was there. There was fighting. Then something very painful happened, as if he was being burnt alive from the inside. Even though he couldn't pinpoint what it was, the feeling made him wince. Everything was out of sequence. It was like trying to piece together the events of a murky dream.

"_Dang it all! Orochimaru must've taken me down again. I've got to wake up and get back to help everyone." _

Whether it was his subconscious that directed him, or something else, Naruto found that his aimless wanderings brought him right into the chamber of the sealed gate. He scowled at the great prison, knowing that in seconds that stupid Kyuubi would appear behind the gate, taunting him or offering his power. But this time, nobody came. He noticed that the paper seal slapped onto the gate started to crackle with an aura of electricity. And then, the sinister voice of the demon fox was heard again.

"**It's time, Naruto. Time for the jailer and the key bearer to join together at last."**

Suddenly, there was flash of light and a smoky explosion. Through a thick cloud of smoke, Naruto appeared back in the real world, startled to stand before his two tailed summoner.

"Hi. Nice to see you again," Tails happily greeted the bewildered Naruto.

Naruto didn't return the greeting. He crouched down getting to Tails' eye level, staring narrowly with his fox slit eyes at the kitsune, then at the kitsune robot by his side, studying the strange fox duo for a moment. He looked at Tails, looked up at Mecha Kyuubi, then looked down at Tails again.

Without warning, Naruto broke the silence and sent his fist crashing down on Tails' head.

"Nice to see you again, my ass!" he yelled.

"Owwww…" Tails clutched the top of his head at the spot where could already feel a bump forming. "What did you do that for?"

"Shut up!" Naruto shook his fist harshly. "What did you think I would do when some kind of weirdo just gets up and summons a guy to an unknown location without warning?"

"I didn't think it was such a bad idea," Tails argued, but then a memory flashed back to when Orochimaru summoned Manda. The giant snake was also a pretty rough customer. Maybe all summons acted like that. Summoning must be a very dangerous business, Tails concluded.

Luckily, Tails didn't have to worry about Naruto threatening to eat him. Did he?

"**Cut it out already, Naruto," **the machine fox spoke. **"Now is not the time for violence."**

"And who is this supposed to be?" Naruto shouted, pointing to the metallic Kyuubi.

"**Even a dumbass like you should be able to recognize me," **the machine grunted.** "I am none other than the Kyuubi no Kitsune itself, manifesting my chakra through Tails' machines. Tails here has summoned you here for a purpose."**

"What? You mean that midget fox? How in the world did I get summoned in the first place? There was never any contract."

"**I understand your frustration, brat. I said the same thing when I was summoned for the first time. Throughout history, many shinobi have tried to summon me to prove their power. Every time, I would punish the summoner for his insolence by eating him. Only one person has ever managed to summon me and live. He was—"**

"I'm not interested in hearing your boring life's story," Naruto cut the Kyuubi off with a 'talk to the hand' motion.

"I think I summoned him at a bad time," Tails said morosely. "He looks kinda mad."

"**Don't worry about that. Offer him some ramen and he will be your friend for life."**

"But I don't have any ramen…" Tails held up his hands to show that they were indeed empty of any ramen.

"Don't screw with me! Now is not the time to be talking about ramen."

"**There's something nobody thought you'd ever say…"**

"Come on. There's no need to be so pissed," Tails said finally. "I just called you here because I need you to help me fight Akatsuki. That's why I wanted to ask you to teach me ninjutsu."

"Teach you ninjutsu?" Naruto scratched the back of his head. He was nobody's sensei. The only person he ever taught was Konohamaru and even then, only the Sexy no Jutsu. Not such a difficult technique. (as long as you did proper research beforehand)

"**The kit is right, Naruto. With the two of you now hunted by Akatsuki, you must combine forces. You should appreciate this as a momentous occasion. To wield my power is an art form in itself. For the sake of all three of us, you must pass down your knowledge to Tails. Then, you will both come to know my real power. And some secrets."**

* * *

Over the skies of Station Square, Knuckles and Rouge flew together side by side. Rouge received reports from G.U.N that the Four-Tailed Kyuubi was defeated and Orochimaru had been killed thanks to Shadow and the Leaf's help. That left Deidara as the last enemy still standing. Rouge got a good shot off the Akatsuki artist before, but that only worked to piss him off even further, unleashing every last bit of explosive power his clay could produce.

"Hey, Knucklehead," Rouge shouted across the wind. "I got a call from G.U.N. HQ. They asked me if we could bring Deidara in alive."

"Hmph. I think this is the last guy you want to take in alive. He'll probably blow himself up the second he gets captured."

"I know that, but we have to try. There are more members of the Akatsuki out there. We have to know who they are and what they're planning. The more we know about their organization, the better we can protect the Master Emerald," Knuckles gave an understanding nod to Rouge's last point. "You think we can do it, Knuxie?"

"Yeah, but I don't think you'll be able to tell who he is after you see how I'm gonna rearrange his face," Knuckles stared at his fists intently. He could already imagine them buried into Deidara's face.

As Knuckles and Rouge flew in closer, Deidara and Sai stood opposite each other, both perfectly balanced on the backs of the flying dragons, created in their individual artistic styles.

"That's a weird smile you got there," Deidara said. "You sure seem like you're in a good mood, un."

"When two artistic minds come together to show off their talents, there is a lot to be happy about," Sai said. "I hope my smile isn't disturbing you."

"Not at all," Deidara smirked back. "I actually prefer it to that constant scowl I keep getting from that stupid echidna, hmm. Fighting you will be a good change of pace."

"There's not much you can do about these dickless Mobians," Sai's pleasant smile grew wider. "That's just what their personalities are like."

Knuckles who had flown in close enough to hear their conversation lost all hope of keeping his tiny temper in check. "Hey, asshole! Why don't you shut your damn trap and do something useful for a change, like fighting!"

"I read in a book that it is proper etiquette to engage in discourse before a duel, even if it's a battle to the death," Sai said. "It demonstrates that we stand as equals and respect each other's unique abilities."

Deidara's smile grew darker. "Don't get me wrong, boy. I'll acknowledge that you're a talented artist, but my art is of an entirely different breed. Unlike your little drawings, my explosive art doesn't exist to make people smile, un." Fixing a sharp eye on the ninja in black, Deidara reached under his cloud-patterned Akatsuki robes aiming for his bag of exploding clay. The mouth on his palm started to lick the air, impatiently waiting to taste some fresh clay, but to Deidara's visible embarrassment, his bag wasn't where he left it. Instead, it was far out of his mouthy palms' reach, in the hands of a flying, pick pocketing bat.

"I got his clay!" Rouge declared, raising Deidara's leather satchel in the air triumphantly. "We've got his main weapon. He should be easy to capture now."

Just looking at the thieving bat made Deidara's shoulder wound throb, but he wasn't ready to lose his composure just yet. "I see. All these distractions made it too easy to sneak up and steal my clay. You're mistaken if you think it's so simple to steal the tools of the artist's trade."

The blond artist simply closed his eyes in thought. The clay in the sack started to jiggle of its own accord until the bog burst open, releasing a tentacled mass of gooey clay exploded that lashed out to grab Rouge and Knuckles in its clutches.

"Yuck! What is this stuff?" Knuckles yelled as he tried to rip apart the sticky tendrils with his own strength. The living clay felt as soft as putty, but harder to break than stone. The earthly material tightened further as it roped around the echidna's locks and the bat's wings.

"It's called Karma. You tried to steal my power to explode, and so my clay now steals your power to fly. That's artistic justice," Deidara couldn't help but smirk and wave goodbye to Knuckles and Rouge as they plummeted through the clouds.

"I like to make my art work on multiple levels," Deidara said, turning his attention back to Sai. "You can feel the drama and the emotions as those two lovers spend their last living moments bound together. You can hear the music of their screams concluding with a powerful boom that results from my special impact clay. It explodes just as it strikes anything with enough force. There won't be anything left of them to see, but we should get a nice view of the blast even from up here."

"I'm sure they'll be all right," Sai said nonchalantly.

"You're colder than I thought hmm," Deidara said. "Comrades of yours are about to die and you're still smiling?"

"I've only known them for a day so I can hardly call them comrades. Neither of them likes me very much, either. But aside from that, I' m sure that they will land safely."

As soon as Sai finished speaking, a dark shadow cast itself above them. Deidara's pleased expression narrowed with suspicion when he looked to see a flying creature with an enormous wingspan swooping down and effortlessly snatching the red echidna and the bat in its claws.

"It's a bat!" Rouge cried. Right before their eyes, a giant vampire bat beat its inky black wings as it soared over the city skyline. Lowering the two Mobians to the ground, the bat took one razor sharp talon and quickly, but gently, sliced off the clay that imprisoned them both.

"You drew that?" Deidara found it hard not to gaze in admiration at Sai's skillful artwork. Every brushstroke was made with utmost precision, creating a being that was truly lifelike. Even a gifted artist would take days to draw that, but this guy did it all in mere moments.

"I figured the echidna liked bats so I found it fitting to draw one for him."

"Such a waste," Deidara shook his head disapprovingly. "Your technique is good, but your method is lacking. I would've used that to make an excellent dive bomber, but what you did…that wasn't inspiring at all, hmm."

Sai simply shrugged, not looking the least offended by his fellow artist's critique. "It's okay if you didn't like it. I have many more pictures to show you. Everything you've just seen was just so that we could focus our undivided attention on each other's work. Are you sure you're ready for that, Deidara-san?"

Deidara couldn't help but smirk along with Sai's unrelenting smile. This boy was special. That was for sure. Deidara smiled nostalgically, thinking about the few artistic shinobi that existed in the world. Sasori was the best, in his opinion. Different for sure, and an asshole from beginning to end, but a gifted genius all the same. This boy reminded him of his old partner in so many ways. It was pity that there would be nothing left of him when their little art contest would end.

"Let's begin," Sai said. His dragon charged forward in a slithering blur.

"I don't care how well you can draw. Your beasts cannot hope to stand up to the power of my dragon, **Youganryuu! (Lava Dragon)**

"My green dragon has no name, but it will do just fine in dismounting you," Sai said in a neutral voice which seemed to annoy his opponent. Deidara was not used to people acting so casually when his magic was on display.

Deidara's molten dragon let out a roar as fierce as a volcanic eruption. With its fiery killing intent, the red dragon opened its mouth wide, trickling forth blood and flaming drool in between its fangs. Another clay dragon in the same likeness emerged from its mouth. Its amorphous body puffed up and expanded as it dove down to blast the rival dragon rider. Sai's green dragon hissed and expertly swerved its serpentine body out of the living bomb's path.

"You really should've thought of putting on a little armor, un," Deidara chuckled. Along with the deep red lava, his face was positively glowing with excitement. At his command, his dragon vomited forth another clay dragon and another until a small army of flying explosive rained down into the skies.

If there was anything else flying there, it would have been blown to bits instantly. Sai was different. Designed by the artist to resemble the Elder Spirit Dragons, the green dragon's wingless form swam against the sky like a master calligrapher's brush strokes on parchment. It's near endlessly long snake body turned the task of dodging the bombs into an elegant dance. Deidara was almost mesmerized by its lithe, almost soothing maneuvers. His creations could never move like that. Clay was just too bulky to allow it. Indeed, there was a lot to admire in an expert's drawing, but any form of art, no matter how beautiful, eventually had to die.

"Katsu!" Deidara cried, setting off his strongest bombs to explode at once, igniting the sky and the clouds with fire and smoke that eclipsed the sun. A storm of hellfire rained down upon Station Square. Fireballs careened into the downtown skyscrapers, blasting apart metal and stone while the streets flowed with rivers of bubbling molten lava.

"_He'll just keep making more of those explosives unless I cut it off at its source," _Sai thought. Deidara saw that the ANBU still refused to show any emotion at a time like this, yet he couldn't stop the sweat from dripping down his face. The ink dragon's body actually started to sizzle as it soared through the air that rippled with heat. With a deep draconic howl, the green dragon launched itself and its rider high into the pure sky, away from the evil dragons' storm of destruction.

Sai whipped another scroll and began to scribble as fast as he could. Within seconds, he pulled out a large black spear. On the back of his dragon, the ANBU descended like a black bolt of lightning, Deidara in his sights. Gripping his weapon firmly, Sai dove down and pierced his lance right between Youganryuu's hollow eyes. The beast's head jerked around wildly and roared.

Not wasting a second, Youganryuu blindly lunged and chomped its teeth down hard on the rival dragon. It bit down with such ferocity that rays of chaos light beamed from in between its teeth as it closed its jaws tighter around its prey. Ink oozed and bubbled through the serpent dragon's broken scales like black blood. Sai sensed that a massive amount of chakra was flowing out of its wound. He knew that his creation would soon be dead. His work of art would revert back to a puddle of lifeless ink and if he couldn't do something, he would die along with it. Deidara too felt the life giving chakra fading away and he grinned manically as he stood triumphantly on top of Youganryuu's snout.

"I gotta hand it to you, gaki. You have real talent, but I will have to cut this short. for I have other victims to play with."

"Yes, like your dick."

Deidara narrowed his eyes at Sai. "What an uncivilized mouth you have, brat! And to say such a thing in these dire circumstances."

"I meant no disrespect, but with those mouths on your palms, I thought—"

"Yeah, maybe thinking isn't your thing, un."

With his precious bag of clay back in his hands, Deidara scooped another mouthful for his next bomb. While he concentrated on molding his clay, he didn't notice Sai forming hand seals.

The Akatsuki bomber took a step back when he saw the giant bat that Sai drew had risen above him. With a high pitched shriek, it unleashed its full wingspan and exploded, splashing fountains of ink everywhere, transforming the one large bat into thousands of little bats that squeaked and flapped erratically all around Deidara. The creeping swarm clouded his vision and entangled themselves in his blonde hair, undoing the topknot of his hair. Unable to use any explosives without endangering himself, Deidara thrashed about helplessly. Now with a perfect opening, Sai dashed upward and kicked the Akatsuki nin squarely in the chin, sending Deidara sailing through into the open air where he started the long drop to his death.

* * *

"Sai is better than we thought. I guess he didn't need our help after all," Rouge said as she looked to the sky where the artists' battle took place. 

"That still doesn't excuse him for that dirty mouth of his," Knuckles grumbled sourly. "I'm going to teach that punk some manners when he gets back here."

"Let it go, you big oaf," Rouge scolded as she rolled her eyes. She was too tired to hear the echidna go on a rant. "You're making this much bigger than it really is. Sai talks like that to everyone. Do you remember what he called me?"

"All the more reason I should serve him some fist!" Knuckles entered an aggressive boxing stance, punching his fists at the air. "He's an insult to the sacred order of Echidna Guardians. Even Sonic doesn't have as bad an attitude as this guy. And that's saying a lot. If he mentions Mobian dicks again, I'll—"

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

A flash of brilliant light exploded around Knuckle's arm, followed by a loud crack. Knuckles strained his eyes to see none other than Sonic flying backwards and crashing onto the ground.

The guy teleported in the middle of his punch.

"Hey!" the hedgehog immediately sprang up to get in Knuckles; face. "How could you hit a girl like that, you ape?"

"A girl?" Knuckles stared at the 'Sonic' completely confused. "You just took an already weird situation and made it ten times more confusing."

"I'm not Sonic. I'm Yamanaka Ino. I'm only borrowing Sonic's body for awhile."

"What do you mean you're _borrowing_Sonic's body? Who are you and why did he lend it to you?"

Ino was about to describe how she used her mind body switch technique when she heard the most hopeless of hopeless sighs being exhaled by her teammate, Shikamaru.

"You can tell by the expression on the red guy's face that explaining things to him is gonna be a real pain. You might as well just quit while you're ahead."

Rouge added her own sigh to the mix. She knew the expression Knuckles was making all to well.

"Bah. Didn't I tell you there was something troublesome about chaos control?" Shikamaru said as he and Chouji lethargically followed behind Ino.

"I'm pretty sure Ino is the only one to ever chaos control into somebody's fist," Chouji said with a shrug.

"Shadow-kun did say that you had to be really precise when chaos controlling after all, but that's okay. A little confusion is worth it if you get to have the seven Chaos Emeralds," Ino said as she proudly displayed all the emeralds as they orbited around her. "You guys should try using them. Maybe you can turn into Super Chouji and Hyper Shikamaru!"

Chouji shook his head. "That would never work. 'Hyper' and 'Shikamaru' are a contradiction in terms."

"I wouldn't bother," Shikamaru nodded in agreement. "Just thinking about all that power makes me tired," a big yawn escaped his mouth. "Now if we can use these emeralds to find Naruto, then we'll be set. In the meantime, you guys can taker it easy from here on in," Shikamaru turned to the two Mobians. "We have everything under control.

"**Who seeks out Naruto?" **a booming voice thundered above. All heads darted up to see Mecha Kyuubi land in front of Ino. His gleaming cybernetic eye focused intently on the chaos emeralds. **"Ah, so there they are," **faster than Ino could blink, the robot snatched away the blue emerald and held it in between its claws. **"None of you will mind if I take possession of this item, will you? Just one will do for now." **Saying no more, the kitsune robot leapt away, leaving a startled group in their midst. Everyone stared at each other wordlessly until Knuckles finally broke the silence.

"'You guys can take it easy. We have everything under control,' he says," Knuckles said, putting on a surprisingly good Shikamaru impression.

"You're laying on the sarcasm pretty thick," Shikamaru murmured. "I know things are troublesome, but you don't have to be obnoxious about it."

"Maybe you were too lazy to pay attention, but a big robot fox thing just came out of nowhere and stole a Chaos Emerald!" the echidna snapped back.

"Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about that," Shikamaru said calmly. "but as troublesome as it looks, seeing that fox robot is a good thing. It mentioned Naruto's name, so now we have some kind of lead."

"Hey, Ino," Chouji said. "Since you don't have all the emeralds anymore, and with Orochimaru gone, maybe it's time you gave Sonic his body back."

"Um, that's gonna be a problem," Ino said.

"Why?"

"He doesn't want it back."

* * *

Deidara was a master of the aerial battlefield and he knew very well the dangers of falling off one's bird. He had developed this trick from the beginning of his career. After molding his clay, it was easy to use his chakra to shape the clay into a soft mattress that absorbed even the hardest impact. 

He wouldn't have minded if he could have gone back to rest on his puffy bed of clay and forgotten that Sai knew he was alive and coming his way. Falling from the sky left him badly winded and right now, his muse was quiet and his blood thirst was quickly being replaced by a simple thirst for a bottle of sake.

"Those who live for their art are forced to give up the simple pleasures in life," he groaned.

"Get up, Deidara-san. We must put an end to this," the voice of Sai spoke from behind.

Getting up to his knees, Deidara turned around in the voice's direction only to find his eyes getting a close up view of Sai's bare belly. Way too close.

"Ugh! That is the last thing I ever wanted to see up close, un," he said, recoiling in horror from this up close encounter.

"Don't worry, you won't be seeing much ever again," Sai said softly, unsheathing his ANBU sword. "Because now, you are going to die."

"I think I just died a little inside," Deidara said flatly.

"I'm sorry you feel that way, Deidara-san. Perhaps in your next life, you will choose a safer artistic path. Penis sculpting, for example."

"That's not the kind of thing to say to someone just before killing them, un," Deidara snarled as he slowly lurched to his feet.

"Sorry, but in the world of shinobi, one rarely gets to decide how they will die, Deidara-san."

Saying no more, Sai shoved his blade straight into Deidara's chest. Sai was sure that an amused smile flickered across the Akatsuki's face for a moment.

"Who do you think you're dealing with?" Deidara scowled at the sword that jutted out of his chest. "You think I'm gonna die from this dented little knife, hmm?"

Sai's hand still gripped around the hilt, he tried to pull it back out, in hopes of striking a different area. Perhaps this Akatsuki protected his chest area.

"That's odd. I could've sworn I stabbed you straight through the heart."

"Would you like to know why you can't kill me like that?" Deidara asked "I don't have much protection in my chest or abdomen, but unlike you, I can make up for that with my secret weapon."

Deidara unbuttoned the dark cloak and tore off his shirt, exposing his chest. Now, Sai saw why he failed to kill him. With Deidara's chest revealed, Sai found his sword not stuck through the Akatsuki's heart as he had hoped, but wedged in between a pair of jaws that sported its own grin.

"A hidden mouth on your chest as well," Sai said coolly. "The bingo book never told us about that."

"All of my true artist's secrets are hidden beneath my cloak. Everything you've seen until now was just to test you, but now I feel inspired to show you some real art, such as have never been seen before!"

Deidara opened his chest mouth wide, revealing a long slimy tongue that presented yet another slab of clay. Placing the clay in his hands, Deidara molded it in his hands, shaping it into the form of a small wakizashi.

"A sword hidden inside your mouth? Isn't that Orochimaru's trick?"

"Oh, trust me. This one is nothing like Orochimaru," The small sword started to bend and twist in his hands, shape shifting into a six foot long great sword, but that wasn't what drew Sai's attention.

A mass of fanged jaws grew along the length of the blade, if it could still be called that anymore. Each mouth closely resembled the mouths on Deidara's hands and chest. Now the three mouths were accompanied by dozens more. Long tongues slithered from every mouth as they gurgled hungrily causing the sword to make a sickly sound as it swung through the air. Deidara playfully held the hilt of the sword with the tongues on his hand.

"This isn't really a sword," he said. "It's a monster that molds my chakra into explosive power. It represents the true spirit of my art. With this in my hands, I no longer need clay. It is truly an artist's greatest tool. But talking about art is pointless. You have to see it for yourself."

Deidara thrust his large sword into the wall of the nearest building. The blade effortlessly sliced through stone and metal, but its true power emerged when the entire structure exploded in a ball of fire, raining dust and debris around the artists.

"Now you have no choice, but to wallow in despair," the shadowy figure of Deidara said softly through the dust clouds.

"It looks like I'll need to wear some armor after all," Sai said and twirled his brush in one hand and unrolled a scroll in another.

"**Chouja Giga: Koutetsu no Kuroi Kishi." (Armor of the Black Knight)**

The opened scroll surrounded him and spiraled around his body in the shape of a helix. With graceful speed, Sai's brush glided against the surface of the parchment. The black ink shined on the pure parchment like black fire on white fire. Within seconds, the artwork came alive and wrapped itself over Sai's body, hardening into a shimmering suit of black armor. When the scroll dropped to the ground, Sai stood before Deidara, covered head to toe in a type of heavy samurai armor, complete with an armored war helmet and gauntlets. Sai's skinny frame appeared twice as large as even his ever exposed belly was guarded by the black battle armor. Only his face, still smiling, remained open.

"Dressed for battle now, hmm? Very impressive," Deidara smirked. "You're art is going to make things more difficult for me, un."

Sai reached his hand behinds his head where strapped to the back of his armor was a black sword waiting to be unsheathed.

The blonde Akatsuki readied his freakish sword in a defense stance and waited for the artist's move. Without a sound, Sai became nothing but a black blur as he glided towards Deidara, pulling out his sword and swinging down on the cloaked ninja in one fluid motion. Deidara saw the oncoming attack and parried against Sai's blade, their swords both pushed against each other.

Deidara made a mental note to kiss his mechanical scope when the fight was ever. It was thanks to that that he was able to react to Sai's speedy movements.

It was good practice if he had to fight against those hedgehogs in the future.

"_So he controlled the chakra in his ink to make that heavy looking armor increase in speed, rather than decrease. That one technique grants him greater defense, speed, and attack power in one."_

Sai's black obsidian sword weighed down on Deidara with surprising strength, forcing him to tense up to keep his feet grounded. As much as Sai's weapon was made of ink, the black sword sounded as solid as anything else, emitting a high pitched shriek as blade scraped against blade, sending flashing sparks into the air.

Deidara grimaced as he struggled to push Sai back. The gunshot wound in his shoulder slowed his movements and sapped away his strength. Sai on the other hand, had his armor and sword that granted him greater attack power, defense, ad speed all in one technique. That would have been enough of a problem, but then Deidara's shoulder wound started to open up from the strain. If this kept up, Deidara knew what would happen. Sai would break through his defense and cut him in half quickly.

"_He's beating me! And all with that stupid little smile," _Deidara couldn't allow that. No way in Hell would he lose like that.

Deidara pulled back and swiped his sword across the ground.

"**Seiryu Kyuuzou!" (Azure Dragon Explosion) **he shouted as he pulled back and swiped his sword across the ground. A bright flash of blue light shaped like a dragon erupted across the earth and sent dirt and asphalt flying into the air. The explosive dragon beam raced towards Sai with lightning speed. Deidara watched with glee as he saw Sai get engulfed in the explosion. Even more satisfying was seeing chunks of his armor scatter all over the street, reverting back to puddles of ink.

Waiting for the dust to settle was a pain, but Deidara could tell by the sound of heavy panting that his opponent's fate wasn't looking so good. Peering through the dust clouds, he found Sai kneeled to the ground, clutching his right arm, trying to hold back the trickling blood flow that came quickly pouring down. Blood welled through his fingertips that gripped tightly around his short sword. That annoying black katana drawn from ink was gone at least. Deidara thanked his muses for that. Even though Sai still held on to his weapon, the blonde knew that it would be no threat, judging by the way the sword quivered in the ANBU's hand.

No. This cocky brat was no longer worthy to stand against the world's greatest artist in explosions and now was the perfect time to brag about how this was so.

"Now you can see the superiority of art that is born and died in a single flash of light. It's easy for me to release a high mass of chakra from the tip of my blade and direct the resulting explosion at will."

Deidara quirked a maniacal grin, causing all the mouths to simultaneously pull their own faceless grins. It was an eerie sight and Sai's smile looked like it was just about to crack.

Sensing the uneasiness in Sai's chakra, Deidara stepped closer to the young artist and lowered the tip of his blade by his arm. The sword's multitude of tongues all slithered out of their mouths together and slurped up Sai's blood hungrily.

Sai was no longer smiling, but he still retained a calm and detached demeanor. "That technique you used against me just now…it had enough chakra to kill me completely, yet you chose to let me live. Why?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Deidara began quietly, straightening and brandishing his bizarre sword. "If I wanted you dead I would've told Youganryuu to eat you already. If you haven't realized, I've been trying my hardest _not_to kill you. To kill you as you stand now would be pointless, un. You know why? Because I have yet to strike awe in your heart. I haven't been able to make you scream or cry. I cannot allow someone to remain unaffected by my art. The beauty of my art demands that you show me your real emotions. Show me that you feel something!"

"I'm sorry, Deidara-san. That's just the way that I am," Sai said simply. A pleasant smile returned to grace his face.

"So that's how it is, un," Deidara hunched over, letting out a tired and defeated sigh. "You're a real boring guy, you know that? And you make all my techniques look boring, but…" his voice began to rise passionately as he straightened up, "…I will make you change your heart! Even if I have to tear it from your chest and squeeze your emotions out! My next move will reach out to you from the bottom of my very heart and soul!"

"**Kuchikukan Ukiyo!" (Destroyer of the Transient World)**

Deidara raised his sword high and shoved it deep into the ground. Slowly, the city landscape started to rumble. Sai felt something moving underground, creating a crackling in the surface. A giant tongue shot out of the ground like a big worm. A giant disembodied mouth bit its way through the earth and rose up to clamp down on Sai's foot with a bite as strong as a bear trap. Another mouth snapped at his other leg. Then another and another. Soon, the entire street ruptured as a swarm of disembodied mouths littered the streets. Before Sai could think of a counterattack, the thousand mouths ate away the earth until it crumbled to bits, collapsing into a deep pit, pulling Sai into the black abyss.

Sai drew his ANBU sword as he tumbled and stabbed into the wall of the pit. That one blade served as the only thing to keep himself from being swallowed by the bleak void. Another set of mouths emerged from the walls and snapped at him while the tongues lashed out, threatening to drag him down into a bottomless grave. All around him, fissures started to crack open the earth to make a wider hole while the gnashing jaws multiplied all around him. From above, the rivers of Lava that flowed through the street swam to the edges and rushed down like slow flowing waterfalls, heating up the void and filling it with smoke and ash.

It was truly Hell on Earth. Complete with its own Prince of Darkness who hovered above the abyss, laughing. His black and red cloak was wide open, fluttering in the wind, revealing his grinning chest mouth, adding to his demonic presence. The infernal dragon floated over the pit and craned its neck down to allow his creator to watch Sai's plight in crazed delight.

"Let's see you smile for me now. Why don't you, hmm?" Deidara cackled. Sai clearly saw the deep crimson hellfire shine in his crystal blue eyes.

"Even though it looks like I am about to die, there is still much to smile about. To think that you would push yourself to the limit of your abilities just for me—"

"Limit? You naïve little shit!" Deidara yelled. "You think this is the best I got? I still haven't revealed my deadliest technique, but no. That forbidden jutsu isn't meant for the likes of you. It's reserved for one purpose and one purpose only," he stated as he lifted one finger and pointed it towards the sky. "It's for you…

"…Uzumaki Naruto."

Following in the direction that Deidara faced, Sai looked up and saw Naruto descending from the above shouting his loudest battle cry, a pulsating Rasengan swirled viciously in his hand.

Deidara wasn't the type to wait while he got attacked by an explosive ball of chakra, so he flew directly into Naruto's path. Holding the sword horizontally, to his body, Deidara held up his blade horizontally to intercept the spinning ball of chakra head on. Neither of the airborne fighters slowed down and the two collided as Deidara slammed his sword straight into Naruto's Rasengan. An explosion of immense chakra force erupted between them, the blue ball's energies spiraled out of control and scattered around. Their blue eyes locked on to each to each other, both gleaming brightly amidst the heavenly blue light. Naruto pushed with all his strength to break through the Akatsuki's weapon, but Deidara continued to channel the energies in his magic blade to hold off the attack. A dragon's roar was heard against the Rasengan's scream as the two energies interlocked.

"Explosions are my domain, jinchuuriki," Deidara snarled. "A shrimp like you has no right to use these techniques in front of me, un." One mouth opened its jaws exceptionally wide and sank its teeth into the Rasengan itself. Drawing the spiraling sphere deeper into the blade, the sword chewed it up, absorbing the ball of chakra within inside itself.

"Kuso!" Naruto swore as he landed on the dragon's nose, his hidden kunai already sprung into his hand. "Where do you guys learn these freaky techniques?"

"Don't blame my jutsus for your failures," Deidara growled. "I sensed you coming from a mile away! You don't know jack shit about the element of surprise!"

"But I do!" someone yelled followed by a shuriken whizzing through the air and stabbing Deidara's hand. The terrorist bomber yelped in pain. The sword fell from his grasp and plummeted to the earth, leaving Deidara empty handed.

"I don't appreciate being disarmed, you—" he looked up in the direction of the thrown shuriken and saw the two tailed kitsune hovering above him.

"Both Kyuubi jinchuurikis are here together?" Deidara shouted in surprise. "I was careless, un."

Tails descended into the deep fiery pit and reached a hand out for Sai. Pulling his sword free from the mouth filled walls of the pit, Sai grabbed onto Tails' hand and was flown to safety just before an erupting stream of lava nearly consumed them both. Naruto threw Tails a thumbs up to which returned. Neither could stop grinning happily at having reached the upper hand.

"I never expected to see any jinchuurikis teaming up against us," Deidara admitted. "They were all such grim individuals until this point," Deidara's own sadistic grin curled around his lips. "But that's fine with me. I've tailored my jutsus to take you both down at once, un. But now, Kyuubi boy," he turned to Naruto. "Get off my damn dragon!"

"I'm not going anywhere until I make sure that you can never throw a single bomb ever again!"

"Fine," Deidara said with surprising calm. "You can stay with Youganryuu, but you will regret having ever made that choice, un."

Deidara leapt off Youganryuu's head and with a simple snap of his fingers, the red dragon reared back and launched itself upwards to the sky with ferocious speed. Naruto had to jab his kunai deep and hard into the creature's flesh just to keep from falling off as he was taken for a ride into the air.

Now Tails was alone.

* * *

Deidara flipped through the air and retrieved his fallen sword. Once again armed, the explosion master brandished his exotic weapon at Tails. 

"Naruto should be kept busy up there for awhile, un," Deidara said. "I'll just stay here and finish you off. This will be an important fight for all of us. With this, we will decide the success of Akatsuki's mission."

"I don't care about your stupid mission," Tails snapped. "It's because of you losers that the whole city practically got blown up!"

"Hmm, nice eyes. Very passionate," Deidara nodded approvingly. "There's a bijuu hiding within you after all. At least this time, I can fight a guy whose face shows some expression, un. It's a pity you don't have any jutsus of your own, though."

Tails smiled slyly. He was waiting for that.

"**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" **A white cloud puffed into existence and enveloped the jutsu using kitsune. When it dissipated, Deidara found himself surrounded by over a dozen Tails clones. Each of them had a devilish smirk on their faces. One Tails clone crouched himself right on the tip of Deidara's sword.

Before Deidara could react, two white tipped orange tails whipped the Akatsuki nin across the face, sending him crashing to the ground in a cloud of dust. It was only luck that saved him from falling into one of the many lava pools or the giant pit.

"Wow! There are so many of me…" Tails couldn't help but gawk at his own jutsu, to see so many versions of himself that were as real as he. His first Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was a little overwhelming. Snapping back to reality, Tails and his clones kept their eyes glued on their Akatsuki enemy.

Deidara grasped for his scope and adjusted it back onto his left eye. As he got up, he set it onto tracking mode. Targeting all the chakra signals created by the Tails shadow clones, Deidara sliced his blade across the ground, creating an explosive bolt of seismic force, causing the earth, rock, and lava to fly into all the Tailses in its path. Those clones that couldn't dodge the explosions vanished in puffs of smoke.

"_Everything this guy does creates another kind of explosion! Time for me to use some explosions of my own, then."_

A new squadron of Tails clones came swarming in from all directions, circling around Deidara. Each kitsune held a kunai grasped in his gloved hand, ready for throwing.

"Kage Bunshins is one thing," Deidara sneered at the oncoming clones. "Flying Kage Bunshins is quite another, un."

With so many Tailses flying about, one of them easily managed to sneak behind Deidara, getting into his blind spot. Aiming to kill, Tails sent the kunai flying towards the back of the blonde man's head. Deidara barely noticed the flying kunai. With no time to dodge, he threw up his sword to block it. One hungry mouth caught the kunai between its teeth.

"Silly boy," Deidara chided. "Throwing a few knives around isn't fitting for a serious shinobi battle. Next time, try to throw something with a little bit more _bang,_un."

A cunning smirk crossed the flying kitsune's face, one that was shared by all his clones. "Look closer. I did."

Deidara held the sword up a bit to get a closer look at the kunai. Upon closer examination, he saw that the knife was lined with tiny microchips and little flashing lights.

"What sort of gizmo is this? Could it be—"

Suddenly, white hot electric sparks started to dance around the kunai and flared up, creating a blinding electrical explosion that would have taken off Deidara's head had his hungry sword not been there to absorb the brunt of the blast.

As Deidara realized this surprising situation, his face beamed with joy and gladness as he set his eyes on the foxes in the air. "You attached mechanical bombs on your kunai. Judging from the type of blast, that was a lot more powerful than using an explosive tag. It was up there with my C1 bombs. And they must all have them! You're really trying to blow me away, aren't you? I must say, this is getting very interesting, un!"

"Sorry, I know explosions can be fun, but I don't have time to mess around with a crazy guy like you," Tails said. "I'm going to finish this with just one more bomb."

"Just one more bomb?" Deidara repeated, making it sound like that was the craziest thing he'd ever heard. "I can't let an opportunity like this pass so quickly. We should make this as big a blast as we can!"

Deidara's sword burst to fiery life. Each mouth screamed uncontrollably, releasing an endless stream of explosive energy upwards. The Tails clones scattered to evade the oncoming blast. Those that did not pop out of existence went on the offensive and launched their exploding kunai at the artist, retaliating with their own explosions.

Explosions bolted from the air. Explosions erupted from the ground. And everything in between got thrown back and forth in a thundering sea of chaos and churning smoke, decimating the already scarred landscape.

Through all the devastation, Deidara was ecstatic. Few people got to mix together work and pleasure, but Deidara now hit the jackpot. At last, an opponent that knew what art meant! He could see it reflected in the kitsune's eyes. Tails and Deidara's blue eyes both gleamed brightly in the firelight.

Deidara unleashed a blast of pure energy from his sword that spread out wide enough to engulf a whole group of clones at once. When the air was clear of anymore flying foxes, the Akatsuki bomber frantically scanned the area for more Tails clones. His explosive dragon shots had slain too many shadow clones to count, but still no body.

Where was the real Tails hiding?

"Come on out, Tails," Deidara called out playfully. "No matter how big the blast is, I promise you'll live, un."

"Yeah?" Tails' voice replied darkly. "It's too bad that you won't."

As Deidara shot a glance up, he was met with Tails diving down with a kunai in hand. With demonic speed, Tails rammed the knife's sharp point straight through the blonde man's skull. Deidara fell face down to the floor instantly.

"I got him…" Tails panted heavily, standing over the slain Akatsuki's body. This being the first time he ever killed a human, he was surprised how easily the kunai pierced through solid bone. Bending down to get a closer look at the dead Akatsuki's face, he raised an eye ridge when he saw how quickly his entire body rapidly changed to a ghostly white color.

"That's not supposed to happen, is it?"

"Get away from there, Tails," the fox looked up to see Sai calling out to him. "It's not real! It's a clay bunshin!"

Tails' ears perked up at the distinctive "Katsu!" call, causing the clay Deidara to blast apart. Tails flew backwards, his ears ringing from the heavy explosion. Arching his back he managed to get his tails in front of him before he smacked into a cement wall with stunning force. His tails were the last line of defense that kept him from shattering every bone in his body.

"And they said you had a high IQ, un," the real Deidara smirked as he approached the fallen kitsune. "You're not the only who can use clones to your advantage, you know. Just every ninja can create some type of clone. Those moves of yours were nothing special, so don't go thinking that all of a sudden, you're some super cool ninja just because you learned Kage Bunshin."

Tails could barely hear what Deidara was saying. His ears were filled by a constant buzzing. Fox ears weren't meant to pick up explosion sounds up close.

"Mission accomplished, hmm," Deidara said, bringing the tip of his blade up to Tails' throat. "You will come with me now."

The ominous silence was broken by a high pitched whiny voice getting closer and closer.

"Senpai!"

Deidara groaned as he turned back, already knowing who he was going to see. Racing down the street was Tobi, his partner in Akatsuki. "Wow, Senpai. You really outdid yourself this time! Ouch. Hot lava!" Tobi yelped as he clumsily hopped out of the way of the streams of flowing magma. "You get crazier every time I see you fight!"

"Oh, no. Not this doofus again," Tails groaned. He joined Deidara with the same annoyed expression on both their faces.

"Oh, don't mind me, Senpai. Please go back to whatever you were doing."

"Tobi!" Deidara shot him an exasperated look. "Where the hell have you been?"

"I was just doing what you said," he replied politely. "I went to capture the kitsune!"

"Oh, yeah? You didn't do a very good job of that, did you?" Deidara motioned to Tails, who was very much not captured by Tobi at the moment.

"Hey! It's not as easy as it looks," Tobi defended. "If you like, Senpai, I could take him now. You look like you're tired, anyway."

"Forget it, Tobi. This task is too important for me to leave to you. I alone will single handedly bring in both this kitsune and Uzumaki Naruto, un."

"Come on, senpai. It sucks that I'm not useful enough to you," Tobi pleaded.

"It doesn't matter anymore. I got him, hmm," Deidara said, not even looking at Tobi. Tails chocked as Deidara pushed the sword deeper into his fur, dangerously close to breaking the skin.

"I insist…Senpai," Tobi's voice dropped much lower, sounding softer, almost dangerous. "I have many hidden powers you haven't seen yet," he revealed a kunai from his sleeve and raised to Deidara's neck. The sharp blade pulsed with electrical power.

"Tobi…what are you—"

Tobi held his free hand up to his mask and pulled it off his face. With a cloudy poof, Tobi disappeared, revealing yet another Tails in the center of the rapidly vanishing smoke. Tails smirked devilishly at the stunned Deidara, the same kunai gripped in his hand.

Deidara had only one microsecond to avoid the death strike to the throat, but was forced to suffer the pain of the kunai bit into his shoulder, sending a surge of electricity down his arm. In an instant flash of light, the kunai bomb detonated. The sensation of an explosion ripping apart and burning his flesh at the same time sent him reeling, surrounded by a red haze of blood and fire. Deidara could do nothing but stare hopelessly as his severed arm fell into the pit to be swallowed up by the endless darkness, taking his sword and his Akatsuki ring along with it.

"I guess I know a little bit about how to use clones after all," Tails smiled at the horrified Deidara.

* * *

How Naruto got to be inside the dragon's mouth, he had no idea, but it wasn't the first time a giant reptilian monster had tried to eat him, hanging onto the precipice of the back if its throat. The hollow insides of the clay beast were alight with a fiery golden glow. 

"What is up with all you damn monsters trying to eat me every single time?!" Naruto screamed, his hidden kunai sprang from his sleeve and stabbed the insides of Youganryuu's mouth. Boiling hot blood seethed from the open wound. As the red dragon opened its mouth wide with a monstrous howl, Naruto sensed a searing explosive breath was working its way from Youganryuu's stomach. Darting towards the open air, Naruto leapt from the clay creature's mouth, ducking his head under the blast of molten clay that spewed from its jaws.

With the kunai still in hand, Naruto jabbed the blade into the side of the dragon's face. With nowhere else to go but a freefall to the bottom of the city, Naruto dug his kunai as deep as it would go into Youganryuu's scales of clay. He pushed the sharp blade in hard enough that he found himself sliding down the dragon's neck, opening up a deep laceration in it's body. The incision opened wider, spilling out a splashing stream of molten lava from its innards. Now Naruto had to either jump and fall or be consumed by the liquid inferno.

Making his choice, Naruto flung himself out into the open air. Below him, he saw the metal tops of skyscrapers melt into slag. He frantically scanned the city looking for something to grab onto. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw a long fox tail extending outwards towards him. The tail wrapped around his waist and retracted, bringing the blonde back to safe ground where he met face to face with Mecha Kyuubi.

"**Yo, brat. Did you forget about me?" **

"I try to," Naruto replied glibly.

"**More human rudeness, I see," **muttered the machine.** "No matter. I'm a robot. I don't care what you say. But turning to practical matters, this dragon was created by Deidara by mixing his clay with chaos energy and his own blood. His destructive spirit breathes life into the beast, making it by far his most dangerous of all his explosives. We need to move very fast to beat that thing, so brace yourself, Naruto. I'm going to grant you a cool new power."**

The kitsune's body shifted its metal parts as the Chaos Emerald in its claws glowed wildly. Before Naruto's very eyes, the demon robot transformed itself into a fiery red jet powered motorcycle. Before Naruto could comprehend what was happening, he found himself already seated behind the wheel. By his side were a familiar looking pair of green goggles.

"My old goggles! It's been forever since I've worn these," Naruto held them up and stared into them teary eyed as a spirit of nostalgia overtook him.

"**I liked it better when you wore those on your forehead instead of that ridiculous symbol of the village that I tried to destroy. Besides, now you'll actually get to use those goggles for something."**

"All right," Naruto said, pulling the goggles over his eyes and revved up the power. The engines roared to life and the Kyyubi cycle sped off with a rubber burning screech. The city was a blur around him as Naruto zoomed through the streets.

Sensing its prey on the move, Youganryuu beat its huge demon wings and swooped down low until it cast its massive shadow just above Naruto. The dragon reared its head back and fired its next breath attack.

The asphalt streets exploded into liquid and erupted as a giant tidal wave of magma that chased after Naruto, hot on his tail. Naruto dared not look back. He kept looking ahead as he zipped along the empty roads as far away from his friends as possible. If he couldn't survive, at the very least, he could divert the dragon's attention away from his friends.

Naruto never attained so much speed in his life. The faster he raced through the city, the brighter the Chaos Emerald glowed. He felt the gem's power growing, its energies reaching into his chakra coils. The power chaos seeped into his veins along with a ton of adrenaline. Combined with the tidal wave of liquid hot magma just behind him, Naruto felt as if his whole body would turn into a raging fireball.

At the last unexpected moment, Naruto veered around the next street corner, leaving the wave of lava to crash to a halt behind him. Raising his hand high in the air, Naruto continued to drive with one hand and gathered as much chakra as he could in the other. Revving up the engines again, Naruto aimed for a far off building in the distance. It was the tallest skyscraper in Station Square and it was the one structure that was able to withstand the numerous attacks that befell the city. That was his destination.

Naruto clenched his teeth as he thundered past the sound barrier. When he reached the skyscraper, he shot straight up the building's vertical wall. As he rose up into the sky, the beginnings of a Rasengan pulsed in his hand.

Following Naruto's chakra trail, Youganryuu roared and flew after Naruto. It used all the speed at its disposal and to race him to the tower's peak. Both were fueled by chaos energy, allowing them, both to reach supersonic speed.

"_I have no idea what the hell I'm doing, but this better work!"_Naruto thought. He tried to manipulate as much of the fierce winds around him to shape them into his Rasengan. The Kyuubi's chakra leaked from the motorcycle and mixed with the blue emerald to power up a dark ruby Rasengan combined with deep blue sapphire blades of a giant shuriken.

The spinning shuriken blades gathered wind all around Naruto, collecting the air from every direction. Even when Naruto ran out of building to ride up, the Kyuubicycle sped past the tower's peak, past the dragon, and continued to sail higher into the clouds. Naruto's fiercely spiraling ball of chakra drew all the clouds in sky swirling together to form the shape of one hurricane. Naruto became the eye of the storm with the clouds circling around him, becoming part of his jutsu.

Youganryuu tried to breathe another deadly breath attack, but the unrelenting winds stole the dragon's very breath away, not allowing anymore blasts to emerge from its mouth.

The hurricane covered the diameter of all downtown Station Square. His jutsu was complete.

"**Fuuton: Shippu Rasenshuriken Kogetsu Zan!" (Wind Element: Spiraling Shuriken Hurricane Thrust)**

Having reached his limit, Naruto started going down. Heading straight back for the dragon's fiery maw, he shoved the deadly chakra orb inside the creature's mouth. The primal force of a hurricane sliced into the red dragon's innards, the cutting powers of the shuriken winds slashed Youganryuu to shreds in a cascade of blood and magma that blasted in all directions.The resulting explosion unleashed a brilliant flash of blinding white light that covered the land for miles. A powerful shockwave exploded across the city. The winds scattered, blasting away the smoke clouds and ash that blotted the heavens. The blood red skies faded away, now replaced by a thick white cloud.

When the explosions and winds settled, Naruto plunged from the sky, rocketing downwards like a meteor. Deidara's face turned many shades of red as he saw that all his beautiful artwork was obliterated.

Complete silence hung over the city as the rushing winds died away and the hurricane clouds froze in place. With the sudden change in winds and clouds high in the sky, the weather took a drastic turn as the air temperature started to drop.

And soon it started to snow.

It started with just a few flakes at first, but then an entire blizzard descended from the clouds. Everyone looked up to the sky in amazement at the sudden snowfall of a billion snowflakes. Tails closed his eyes and stood calmly in the midst of the snowstorm, enjoying the frosty touch of each snowflake on his fur. After the recent intense heat, this blizzard was the best thing that could have come his way.

A blanket of pure white sparkling snow soon spread across the city streets. Deidara's mouths shriveled up like dead plants. All the fires went out and the rivers of lava slowed until they crystallized into smooth sheets of obsidian.

"Damn…" Deidara's face fell in defeat. "I've lost it all." He winced as he stared at the stump of his arm mournfully. "This couldn't have gotten any worse."

"Senpai!"

It did get worse.

"Don't worry, Senpai!" Tobi ran as fast as he could and screeched to a stop in between Deidara and Tails. "I've come to save you!"

"It's Tobi. The real one," Tails murmured. "I didn't think he'd get here so fast."

"I saw the whole thing as I was running down here, Senpai. I'm so sorry I wasn't able to make it in time," he huffed. "but still…I can't believe you fell for it!" he started shouting wildly. "What an old trick. I know the fake Tobi looked convincing, but you should have noticed that my voice was completely wrong. It doesn't sound anything like the way he did it."

"What are you talking about?" Deidara shouted. "The voice was dead on. It was just as loud and annoying as yours, if not more so."

"You know what's even funnier?" Tobi clutched the side of his ribs. He looked like he was about to fall over in a fit of laughter. "You lost an arm…_again!_And you lost it in an explosion, just like I always thought you would."

"You're treading on thin ice, Tobi," Deidara growled.

"No kidding," he chuckled. "The snow is really starting to pile up. Soon it'll be very cold. If we don't leave soon, your other arm might freeze itself off."

Deidara took his surviving hand and quickly wrapped it around Tobi's throat, squeezing very hard.

"Ack! Senpai, you're hand…is freezing!"

"This is a warning! Keep talking and I _will_throttle you to death, Tobi! You got that?" he bellowed, shaking Tobi violently before letting go.

"Better make sure you have your arm or at least yours legs still attached before you do that. If your luck keeps up, you'll end up having to choke me to death with your butt cheeks. But since you're an artiste, you could probably do that, too!"

"I can't deal with this anymore," Deidara muttered, shaking his head slowly. "More Konoha guys are coming this way and Sonic the Hedgehog is with them. I have only a tiny amount of chaos energy left in my body to make my escape, un."

With his only hand left, Deidara produced a bit of clay and threw it to the ground. Another white cloud poofed into existence.

Tobi stood in place, gawking at his senpai's latest work of art. It was another bird. "What is that, Senpai?"

"This is my chocobo. Amongst the birds, its speed on land is unmatched. This last piece of art for today will be my means of escape, un."

In the distance, he saw the Konoha shinobi and the Mobians marching through the snow towards him. Realizing that no time was left, he leapt on top of the bird and commanded it to gallop away.

"Wait, Senpai! Where's my chocobo?" Tobi cried as he desperately tried to keep pace alongside the sprinting bird.

"Sorry, Tobi. I only had enough energy to create one."

"Wark," the chocobo chirped.

"Please, Senpai," Tobi legs were practically running in full circles. "Don't leave me behind. I can't keep up."

Deidara moaned and motioned for the chocobo to lower its head and grabbed the collar of Tobi's cloak in its beak.

The masked ninja flailed his arms and kicked his legs in the air as they sped out of the city. As the galloping bird went even faster, Tobi cried for dear life as the world blurred by.

"AAAAAH! I'm gonna die! Slow down, Senpai!"

Deidara sighed and reached into his bag to grab just a little bit of leftover clay. He plugged them into both his ears and formed a content smile when Tobi's endless wailings were drowned out.

"Senpai! Aren't you listening to me? I can't go on anymore! I'm getting sick! I'm freezing! I'm gonna turn into a Tobicicle! Senpaaaaiiiiii!!"

Deidara ignored Tobi's screams and lied back on his bird, relaxing for the rest of the ride. Tobi's cries faded into a distant echo as the pair vanished through the snowy fog.

"Whew! It's over," Tails sighed with relief and leaned his back against a building wall, almost dropping form exhaustion. The furnace of Kyuubi chakra that burned through his veins gradually cooled down. Kyuubi was satisfied enough that Deidara was defeated and out of the way, it seemed.

Looking up into the white sky, Tails heard the whirling of his Tornado plane. The red plane was diving down from the clouds like a shooting star leaving a thick trail of grey smoke behind. Naruto was behind the controls. His eyes were bugging out as he desperately starting smashing on every button in sight "How do you land this crazy thing?" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs.

Tails shut his eyes and winced as he heard the ensuing crashing noises. When things got quiet, Tails saw his battered plane sticking out of the snow vertically. The pilot tumbled out of his seat and landed in the snow badly off balance. Naruto's right arm was too stiff to move. He knew it wasn't because of the crash, but because he used it to hold that new Rasengan. The chakra tore his jacket's arm right sleeve to shreds, exposing his arm that looked a bit burned.

After regaining his bearings, Naruto trudged through the snow, making his way towards Tails. The fox did the same, hobbling towards the crash site.

"Victory…dattebayo," Naruto shouted and raised his fist.

"Yeah…victory," Tails replied, breathing heavily, also raising his fist.

The two jinchuuriki stood opposite each other, grinned widely and struck each other's fists, then simultaneously fell backwards, collapsing into the freshly fallen snow.

* * *

Sonic the Hedgehog was in Heaven. 

He couldn't exactly remember how it was that he came to be there, but he couldn't have found a happier place. It was like nothing on Mobius. He was sitting in the middle of a field of flowers in every color that stretched out as far as the eye could see. A thousand cherry blossoms from the sakura trees danced around him under the shining clear blue sky. There was enough room to run forever, without anything or anyone getting in the way, but right now, he was content to lie on the soft grass, holding a rose to his nose and taking in its scent.

"Sonic!" Ino's voice boomed across the land. "It's time for you to come out. I am releasing you from my jutsu."

"Wha?" Sonic absently tried to shoo away the noise with the back of his hand. "Oh, don't worry about that. You can use my body for as long as you like."

Suddenly, the bright skies went black, casting the world in darkness. A black shadowy form of Ino wreathed in flames, larger than life descended from above. The terrifying form of Inner Ino arrived.

"Dammit, hedgehog! You get your spirit out of my mindscape _NOW_!"

In the blink of an eye, Sonic's spirit was kicked out of Ino's mind and sent back into his body.

The unexpected climate was like a smack to the face. It took a few seconds for Sonic to get his back his bearings and get the feel of having his mind back in his body. He held his hands up in front of his face and wriggled them freely. He stretched his legs, relaxing the flow of energy in his system. Looking around he saw, Ino was rising from her comatose sleep with the help of Shikamaru and Chouji, also readjusting to her old body.

"Looks like I'm back," he said to himself, scanning his new snowy surroundings. "I didn't know it was winter time yet. A lot of things must have happened while I was out. I wonder what I missed."

"No! The radiation from the Master Emerald does not make you sterile!" he heard a certain echidna yelling at that belly top wearing ninja. "Now if I hear one more perverted comment about my dick, you're gonna be smiling out your ass!"

Knuckles shouted every word as loud as he could, causing Rouge to bury her face in her hands. Sonic peered over to here to see the white bat go from pink to red and back to white again.

"_Yup. Definitely missed a lot." _

Yo, Knux," Sonic called, trying to get the enraged echidna's attention. "I didn't come back to this world just to hear about you talk about your schlong."

"Sonic?" Knuckles turned his attention away from Sai. Nothing served better to get his mind off one annoying bastard then another annoying bastard. "How'd you manage to escape back into your body?"

"Escape? I was evicted!" noticing the odd face Knuckles was making, Sonic decided that the topic wasn't worth continuing. "But forget about me, what happened around here? Nuclear winter? Are zombies gonna be popping up from the ruins, craving Mobian flesh? 'Cuz if they bite me and I turn into one, I'm coming for you first."

"Don't be ridiculous! You mean you don't remember anything since your fight with Orochimaru?"

"Just vague stuff. Everything happened so fast…and coming from me, that's saying something. The only thing I remember well is that demonic presence coming from Tails. Yeah, the force that came out of him…you don't forget a thing like that."

"Hey, Hedgehog," Shikamaru interjected as he entered the conversation. That lazy frown the guy brought with him was contagious. "I see you've got your body back so that's one hassle that we can be done with, but it looks like now, I have the troublesome task of explaining everything to all of you. This could take awhile."

"Save it for a sec, Mr. Pineapple Head," Sonic said with a far off look. "I see somebody I haven't gotten the chance to talk to in awhile." With that, Sonic broke into a run and sped off.

Shikamaru sighed and shook his head. "These nicknames I keep getting are a pain, but at least I was saved the trouble of explaining everything."

Sai smiled as he saw the hedgehog run away, kicking up clouds of snow. "The kitsune will be happy to see Sonic again. They share quite a strong bond. Unbreakable, actually."

"Oh, good. You're the last guy we needed to bring back," Shikamaru said, noticing Sai. "Now that you, our mission is almost complete,"

"Almost?"

"It's troublesome to ask this, but Temari was last seen flying with you and the Mobians, right? Any idea where she is now?"

"I'm afraid I don't know," Sai said. "She was flying behind me before. She wanted to challenge Deidara, but I insisted on fighting him alone. I felt it would be too unpleasant to fight my artistic battle with her aggressive personality interfering, so I confiscated her tessan and kindly sent her on her way. Here," he tossed the large fan at Shikamaru's feet, "you can give it back to her when you find her."

Shikamaru blinked.

"You. Stole. Temari's. Fan…?"

Sai's carefree nod confirmed it what he already knew.

"I'd like to know how he managed to pry it out of her hands," Chouji said, looking both shocked and terrified.

"That's not the point," Shikamaru said. "Do you realize that she's going to kill you?"

"Yes," Sai answered, not looking the least perturbed. "Although I don't need to fear this girl since I have balls, unlike you."

Shikamaru didn't move, nor did he change his bored expression. He even kept his hands in his pockets as his leg shot upwards and slammed into Sai's unprotected stomach. The force of the kick threw the ANBU down to the ground.

Chouji grew an enormous sweatdrop.

"Shika…" Ino gasped.

"Damn! I so badly wanted to do that!" Knuckles stamped his foot on the ground furiously for the missed opportunity.

The unexpected impact to the gut was more than the ANBU could take._"Shoud've put on some armor, un…some armor…some armor…some armor, un,"_Deidara's voice echoed in his head as he clutched his stomach. He could barely lift up his head to see Shikamaru looming above him. He looked down at him lazily, hands still stuffed in their pockets.

"We Naras may not have such great balls, but we have our own ways of handling the toughest women."

"I was a little nervous there, Shikamaru," Chouji admitted. "I thought you would go for the crown jewels."

"Eh? I don't want to be responsible for a troublesome problem like that. I'll never be allowed to lead a mission again. Besides," he chuckled slightly as he walked away, picking up the large tessan. "I'll leave that for Temari."

* * *

Flake after flake fell, hitting the frigid ground with utter silence. 

Except for one sound. Somewhere hidden in the storm, Tails heard a voice whispering in the wind. A voice as soft as the diamond snowflakes that buried into his fur.

"_Tails…Tails…"_

He wanted to get up. He wanted to answer, but he was too exhausted. Too much Kage Bunshin use. He was warned that it was a tricky jutsu. The best he could do, was open his eyes just a tiny crack.

There, almost hidden within the icy mists, his eye caught a glimpse of a human girl, at least the fox assumed the newcomer to be a girl. The stranger was dressed in loose flowing robes that billowed in the wind. She was the one who called his name. The stranger smiled at him.

"Wh-who are you?" his small voice croaked. "Are you a ghost?"

"_Even though you don't know my name, I doubt that anybody in the world would know me better than you,_" the ghost said, smiling lightly.

"You're-you're a ghost, aren't you?"

"_In my lifetime, I've been in your shoes and I've walked your path. Now I have come to watch over you and to guide you. In time, perhaps, I will even fight with you. As long as you don't give up yet, Tails. You wll find all the strength you need." _

"There they are," Pakkun said, pointing his paw to the column of smoke that came from the downed plane. A fox's scent was definitely close by. The pug dog made tracks with his little paws through the snow followed by the gigantic paws by his fellow ninken, Bull.

Sitting down next to Tails, Bull, the giant bulldog, unloaded the small wooden barrel attached to his spiked collar. Opening the barrel with a click, he produced a small ceramic bottle and proceeded to pour the bottle's contents down the fox's throat. Even with the freezing temperature, Tails all of a sudden felt like his insides were set on fire.

"Whoa! What was that funky stuff?" Tails asked, exploding from his slumber and stumbling around in disarray.

"A little bit of sake helps to warm the blood," Pakkun said, grinning.

"Who are you guys?" Tails asked, still trying to recover from a stream of alcohol burning through his system. The snow spirit was gone, but now the fox was standing between two dogs with Konoha hitai-ites.

"Pakkun of Kakashi's Ninken ninja dogs, at your service, and this is Bull. We were dispatched from Central City where the team is currently based. Kakashi asked for us to personally retrieve you."

"Kakashi-sensei has ninja dogs? That's so cool!" Tails exclaimed. As he listened to Pakkun tell over the rest of Kakashi-sensei's message, Bull took the sake bottle in his great paw and let it liberally pour into Naruto's open mouth. Just like Tails, Naruto bounced up suddenly, gagging from the weird taste in his mouth. Having been on many journeys with Ero-Sennin, the taste of hard alcohol was not new to him.

"What the hell is wrong with you freaks? Since when were talking dogs allowed to give alcohol to minors?"

"I explained it to Tails already," the little pug replied. "The rescue ninja dogs are always prepared with a bit of sake for emergencies like these. It's very effective in warming up the blood."

"So is a harem of hot chicks, but you didn't bring any of those," Naruto argued. "…Did you?"

"Hinata, Sakura, and the rest are waiting for us in Central City if that's what you want," he answered, deadpan. We should get moving there anyway. If Tails is ready, that is."

"Sure," Tails stated enthusiastically with the obligatory punch in the air. "Let's do it!"

"You see? There's no need to get so worked up about the sake, Naruto," Bull's deep voice rumbled. "I can tell that you and the kitsune are the type who can hold their drinks well. Not like that oddball kid in the green spandex."

"I do feel a lot warmer after that sake," Tails said, rubbing his white belly. The sake's fire was felt mostly down there, but he also felt some of the alcohol moving up to his head. He swayed around slightly and his eyes were half closed, not quite focusing as he stared into the distance. "But then again, I think I'm seeing things now. There's someone out there.

"Look alive, little buddy!" a snowball rocketed from behind and beaned Tails right in the back of the head, knocking him face down into the snow.

Tails bolted up and spun his head around to face the snowballer. That voice sounded faint through the snowy winds, but he knew he heard it before.

"Hey, little bro! How're you doing? Chilling?" Sonic snickered at his own lame joke.

"Sonic?" Tails stared wide eyed at the blue hedgehog. "Is that really you?"

Before Sonic had a chance to answer, Tails ran towards the hedgehog and hurled himself into his arms, burying him in a hug that tackled him into the snow. "You're okay!"

"Yeah, never been better!" Sonic reached up and ruffled the fur on Tails' head, grinning as Tails increased the hug. "Sorry if I got you worried at all. I took a pretty crazy trip today."

"Me too! Just awhile ago, I saw you die! It was the Akatsuki, Sonic," Tails started to explain rapidly. "They're all after me because they want to suck out my bijuu and stick it in a big statue. Even though I beat Deidara, there's a whole bunch more chasing me. There's this big evil fish guy with a huge evil sword named Kisame and he—"

"Does he use water attacks?" Sonic asked.

"Uh…,yeah. How'd you guess?" Tails looked at him, surprised.

"Just a hunch," he shrugged.

"But he wasn't the worst one, Sonic," Tails went on. A distressed look appeared on his face. "Kisame's partner is the scariest guy I've ever seen. Here, Mecha Kyuubi snapped a picture of him so you can see what he looks like," Tails handed a small photo to Sonic which portrayed a dark haired human in the Akatsuki cloak. Sonic's first reaction was to say that the guy didn't look so tough, but on studying the picture just a little longer, the hedgehog felt something unsettling when he looked at that face. Something very disturbing lurked behind those red eyes.

"So what do they call this guy again?"

"Uchiha Itachi," Sonic waited for a thunderbolt to come down on cue. "I didn't see him fight so much, but he's a creepy master of illusions. He has this forbidden technique that traps people in a nightmare world that drives them completely insane. It's supposed to be the most powerful genjutsu ever!"

"Is that right? Well never fear, little bro. I won't let him get to ya. I happen to be an expert in dealing with genjutsus," Sonic announced proudly.

"Really?" Tails' eyes lit up at this new revelation.

"Oh, yeah. I remember this one time when I was up for a midnight snack and I ate thirteen chili dogs along with a tub of cookie dough ice cream. You wouldn't believe the nightmares I had that night. I thought I was gonna go completely nuts!"

"You don't seem to understand the seriousness of your situation," Pakkun said sharply.

"Yeah, you got me there. The truth is, at least with water, I know what I'm doing. But I don't know the first thing about genjutsus."

"I can help you with that," Pakkun piped in. "Kakashi can teach you how to defend against genjutsus and Sakura-chan knows a lot about this kind of stuff, too."

"Sounds like a plan," Sonic said. "All righty, Tails, I say we wrap up this whole Akatsuki business and send these ninjas packing to their home universe quickly. I'm scheduled to appear in a multi-dimensional brawl with these fighters from all across the different realities. So how about for a warm up, we nail Itachi's butt together? You up for that, Naruto?

Sonic frowned when he saw that Naruto was looking away absent-mindedly, obviously having not heard a word about his exciting inter-dimensional brawl. It was weird to see the hyperactive ninja stand so still.

"_You've gotten a lot stronger since last time._

"Snow at this time of year…just like that other time…" he mumbled as he gazed upwards.

"_Remember me, Naruto?" _the same spirit that spoke to Tails now appeared before Naruto.

"_How could I forget…Haku?" _Naruto smiled at the apparition that only he could see. After all this time and everything that happened, Naruto remembered Haku as a friend and nothing else.

"Yo, Naruto," Sonic called, snapping him out his thoughts. "You coming with us?"

"Yeah, yeah," he replied lazily. "I was just thinking…about someone I met years ago on my first mission. There was this guy who was born in a snowy village. Seeing this brings back memories, that's all."

"_Naruto, please help Tails on his long journey. Grow strong together. You will need each other to face the coming darkness."_

"_Coming darkness? What do you mean?" _

"_Pain is coming…"_

"_Huh?"_

"_Keep going, Naruto. No matter how much pain you're going through,"_Haku said, his voice starting to fade away in the snow.

"_Pain? I don't feel any pain." _

Suddenly, sharp needles of pain lanced through his arm. Naruto looked to see his arm suddenly dripping with blood the same arm that felt strangely numb before. He winced in pain and fell over.

"Naruto, you're bleeding," Pakkun said, observing the rivers of blood that snaked down the length of his right arm.

"He needs sake right away!" Bull shouted and immediately drenched the wounded arm in a torrent of sake.

"Owww! What are you doing?" Naruto yelled.

"It's to keep your wound clean," the bulldog answered, with a serious look on his wrinkled face.

"Naruto's right. Sake's not enough. We need to bring him to a hospital right away! Sakura will be able to help him. Perhaps Shadow can use his medical abilities, too."

Sonic laughed out loud. "Ha! Shadow's a medic? This I gotta see."

Without any further notice, the giant bulldog grabbed Naruto and threw him on his backside, getting ready to run. "We're leaving," Bull announce, then mushed through the snow with surprisingly graceful speed.

"He'll recover quickly," Pakkun said. "I'm sure of it. In the meantime, if you want our help, we'll be waiting for you in Central City. Come on down whenever you're ready."

The ninja dog brought his paws together in a deal. And in a poof, he was gone.

"Uzumaki Naruto…what a strange dude." Sonic's voice trailed off as he stared up at the falling snowflakes.

Protect those most precious to you, huh?" Sonic mused over that thought. "Hey, Tails. What say we grab some chili dogs and then we'll—Tails!"

Had Sonic just turned around sooner, he would've seen Tails in possession of the sake bottle. His head tilted back, the little fox opened his big mouth wide and guzzled down all the sake he could.

"Put the sake away, Tails," Sonic said firmly.

"Aw, c'mon, Sonic…" Tails' cheeks turned pink and he wobbled away as he moved around, trying to keep the bottle away from the hedgehog.

"_Geez, ninja dogs really shouldn't give young foxes alcohol," _Sonic thought when he finally managed to grab the bottle.

"Hey, you!" Sonic called out to Sai who was still collapsed in the snow. "You look like you could use a drink."

Sai glanced at the sake bottle that was tossed into his hand and watched as Sonic grabbed Tails' hand and took off running.

"Hmm," Sai murmered and took a swig of sake. After tossing away the empty bottle, he sat down and unpacked his drawing kit. Starting on the first page of a blank new book, he drew in some white paint, then some blue and a little orange. Soon enough he finished his latest work that depicted Sonic and Tails running across the snowy fields. Like all his works, this one was left unnamed. Sai had no idea what to call it.

Because he had no idea what would happen next.

**The End (of Chapter 13)**

**Disclaimer: Chocobos are the big birds from the Final Fantasy series. They are owned by Square Enix. Not me. Anyway…**

**Whew! Finally finished! It's been awhile, but holiday time doesn't leave much time for writing. Hope everyone partied hard! This has become a pretty big fic. If you've been reading this story from the beginning, you've read over 200 pages. If you've read every word, you deserve some cookies! I was tempted to cut this chapter short with a cliffie, but I wanted to give a happy ending instead and not leave in the middle of a fight. Next chapter (won't be this long) kinda starts a new arc. More characters are showing up so it should be fun. Thanks for reading! **


	14. Vengeance from the Grave

**Wow…I finally finally finally got to update! So sorry for the delay. I've been distracted lately and I wanted to make sure this one came out good. Well, you've waited, so now I've unleashed this chapter upon you. Please enjoy!**

**Authoress Rachizzle: Okay, I know what you're talking about. I really do. Truth is, people were not meant to read stuff off of computer screens. I wish this were a book too. Big stories with long chapters do tend to be my favorites. They tend to be the best written and have the deepest stories. Not always, but often. Anyway, there's no way I could actually sit down and read them all in one sitting. I only read a little bit and come back later. A chapter this size would probably take a day or more to finish. Most authors are nice enough to put in some kind of break usually in between scenes, so you don't get too lost. I do this too with those gray bar things. When you see them, that means a scene just ended. It's a good time to leave and read the next part later. I don't even plan on writing long chapters. They just end up coming out that way. It's mostly because I have a lot of characters to write. Now a bunch of people have told me that they like the long chapters so I won't all of a sudden stop writing them, but I promise I will try to throw in a few short ones if I feel they work. In the meantime, I strongly recommend not reading this stuff in one sitting. Use the line breaks to mark things and take your time. It wont get deleted or anything. Also, I included a recap of the whole story in a nutshell this time for you and anyone else who doesn't get the whole long story. I hope that helps. By the way, it's awesome that you were able to find the all the good lines, even in such a huge chapter. Anyway, thanks so much for still reading and reviewing. I know it's been hard on you and you can keep saying the same stuff as much as you want. All these long chapters is a lot of work. I'll definitely write some shorter ones, too. I promise.**

**Lycropath: Thanks. I'm glad you liked Deidara and the chocobo. This fic will probably have Tails training with Jiraiya and the story will end with Tails becoming the next Toad Sage where he sits a top a big toad, drinking ad continuing the Icha Icha series. The Chaotix are making an appearance soon. This is going to turn out to be a very crowded fic...**

**Dragon Man 180: Thanks! I cooked up the idea when I was thinking of ways for Naruto to interact with the new Kyuubi. At some point, the motorcycle idea hit me.**

**TheShamanMaster: Thanks! Glad you liked the fights and poor Deidara and Tobi getting pwned. I'm sorta feeling bad for Deidara though. I'll have to be nicer to him next time he shows up.**

**star's dreams: Thanks :D Heh heh. Glad you liked the Shikamaru humor. Sometimes, it just sucks to be him. Thanks for waiting and here's the next chapter.**

**oOo-Kaede Higuchi-oOo: Who doesn't love chocobos? They're so awesome. And yes, Kyuubi did say "cool powers." And poor Shika is subject to the most troublesome lines. Poor guy...**

**captain deoxys: A NaruHinaSaku triangle would be interesting. I'm pretty chilled about pairings so I could write whatever people want. NaruSaku is nice, but I think I feel the NaruHina. There os going to be something going on with the Kyuubi and the negative energy. It does sound awesome.**

**Zohaku: Thanks! I'm really happy you felt Deidara come alive. This next chapter is important for Sasuke's story, but that's all I can say for now. Pein will be coming and he'll reveal the six paths soon. It's gonna be nuts!**

**Insane-Squirrel: Thanks! Keep dancing because there's gonna be some NaruHina.I can't do Brawl in this fic, though. Maybe in another story.**

**: Yeah, there's still pairings in this. ShikaTema is there and there will be NaruHina. That's the one I got asked for the most and I like it a lot anyway. For Sonic pairings, there's KnuxRouge and I think Ill do ShadAmy. I'm open to any requests.**

**Angelus-alvus: Thanks! Glad you're loving it. Go chocobos!**

**Imcool34567: Yes, there is more. Lots more!**

**kilatails: Sai's a pretty hateful character. I can see why people don't like him, but I think he's lots of fun to write and I just had to do an artist fight between him and Deidara. Don't worry about him anymore. He had his big fight, so he won't be making such big appearances anymore.**

**belletiger: I don't know why Kishi didn't do a Sai vs. Deidara fight. It makes so much sense. Too bad Deidara is dead. I don't thing I could bring myself to killing him. FF7 is Deidara's favorite game, for some reason. He loves birds so he must love chocobos. Pein and all the Akatsuki are showing up. So will Suigetsu, Karin, and Juugo. And I have no idea why Kishi did that to Tobi, but writing him as an idiot is tons of fun!**

**DUDE: Thanks!**

**Scorch the Hedgehog: Thanks for pointing that out. That sounds like the kind of error I would make, so I went looking for it and found it in Chapter 8. It's fixed now.**

**Rorre: Yeah, another anime/game crossover. Yay for narutards! It's not Sonic/Naruto/FF, though. Cloud and Sephiroth won't be stopping by to say hello. I just like to throw in some fun cameos every now and then.**

**Aura Chocobo: Wow! Thanks for taking the time to write that long review! I'm really happy that you like seeing Tails kick some ass. That's probably one of the big reasons I wrote this. Your suggestion is heard loud and clear and I couldn't agree with it more. I will aim to at least cut the waiting time for the next chapters in half. I have lots of great ideas I can't wait to put up here.**

**Garra of the desert: Here you are with the new chapter! Sorry for the super long wait!**

**SexyShadowGirl: Hey there and welcome aboard! I know how much it sucks when people don't continue their fics, so I promise that I won't ditch this story. I have a lot of things planned out many chapters in advance, so I won't leave all those ideas behind. This fic is going to stay.**

**TC chan: Thanks! Sai does have a talent for stealing the best lines. I know I'm also dying for the manga to reveal more about Pein and Madara's backgrounds. I planned out some parts with Pain and I'm really excited to be writing Pein into this story. In the meantime, you'll catch a glimpse of Pein here. And yeah for mist ninjas. One or two of those guys might show up, here.**

**Morph: Oh, yeah. I will be adding more Sonic characters. The Chaotix are definitely coming in and I'm adding Nack the weasel and more obscure characters will make appearances like Bark and Bean. Cream also has an important part in this fic.**

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_**ANBU Investigative Report**_

_**by Yamato**_

_This mission began after ANBU received information that Orochimaru had traveled to the extra planar realm called Mobius. His goal was to collect seven mystical artifacts known as Chaos Emeralds. He brought his newest apprentice and missing Konoha nin Uchiha Sasuke to help him find the emeralds and kill whoever possessed them. The Super S-Rank mission had two objectives: To find all seven chaos emeralds before Orochimaru could get hold of them and to capture Sasuke and return him safely to Konoha. With the latter goal's personal connection in mind, it was decided by the Hokage to dispatch Uzumaki Naruto from Team 7 to rescue Sasuke. The team was organized and led by Nara Shikamaru of Team 10. A squad of thirteen members was sent to Mobius, guided by Kakashi's ninken, Pakkun, whom had prior experience with the emeralds and could recognize their scent. Due to the severity of the mission the squad brought together the combined teamwork from Team 7, Team 8, Team 10, and Team Gai, informally known around the village as the Konoha 11. In addition, a joint effort with Sunagakure was agreed upon, sending the Kazekage's sister Temari to be assigned to the group._

_Following Pakkun's nose, Shikamaru split the members of his team, sending them into the city of Robotropolis, the heart of the Eggman Empire, ruled by the dictator Dr. Ivo Robotnik. There, they encountered Shadow the Hedgehog, a powerful being known as the Ultimate Lifeform, skilled in the manipulation of chaos control, Rouge the Bat, a skilled thief and a secret agent working for the Guardian Unit of Nations, and finally, the two tailed kitsune, Miles Prower, alias "Tails." They came with the same mission in mind: to retrieve the chaos emerald before Orochimaru could get them. Before our team arrived on Mobius, Orochimaru had already struck, fatally injuring Knuckles the Echidna, sacred Guardian of the Master Emerald. Under Orochimaru's orders, Sasuke stole Tails' chaos emerald and nearly killed him. By the time they found Orochimaru in Robotropolis, he already had three emeralds and challenged Shadow for the two more. Sasuke went to duel with Shadow, both came close to killing the other. When circumstances gave Sasuke the upper hand, he stabbed Shadow with the Sword of Kusunagi._

_It was then that we made our most important and unexpected discovery. Tails revealed that he had the ability to unleash the demonic chakra of the Kyuubi. There's no question that this was the same chakra that should be sealed inside Naruto. Somehow, Tails was able to enter the Kyuubi's prison seal and communicate with him at will. It was at that moment that Kakashi and I immediately deployed ourselves as backup. Kakashi showed that his Mangekyou sharingan could also open a portal to the worlds. Upon arrival, we saw that the small kitsune was able to cripple Sasuke even in his activated cursed seal. Before any of us could intervene, Sasuke disappeared in an explosion, leaving no body behind. While Kakashi tried to subdue Orochimaru, I arrived to suppress the Kyuubi's chakra and return Tails to normal. Orochimaru took that time to escape, but not before blowing up the entire mechanical city. We teamed up with the Mobians and decided to regroup with the rest of the team in Station Sqaure who went there to seek out the remaining emeralds._

_When we reached Station Square, we found that Naruto and the others had befriended the legendary hero of Mobius, Sonic the Hedgehog. That same hedgehog also turned out to be best friend, mentor, and older brother to Tails. While we outnumbered Orochimaru, we were unable to capture him due to a collision with Dr. Robotnik, bent on getting revenge for the loss of his emeralds. Although he was defeated easily, the situation worsened when we found out that the Akatsuki arrived to capture Tails and Naruto. Deidara, the missing nin from Iwakagakure, used his explosive jutsus to lay siege upon the city. While Deidara's objective was to capture the kitsune and possibly the chaos emeralds, Orochimaru cared nothing for Tails or any jinchuuriki and attempted to kill Tails and Naruto. Determined to protect his best friend, Sonic confronted Orochimaru with all seven chaos emeralds gathered together. Orochimaru showed that he was skilled enough to place Sonic under a genjutsu and forcibly transformed Sonic into Super Sonic. Under Orochimaru's control, Super Sonic was ready to kill Tails and Naruto and everything else in his way. Kyuubi understood the threat and still unable to give over all his chakra to Tails, he went back to Naruto and transformed him into the demonic four tailed Kyuubi stage._

_An all out war ensued, resulting in the city almost being leveled with casualties resulting in the hundreds. It took our combined effort along with our Mobian allies, but we managed to bring Sonic and Naruto back to normal. We were then able to turn the tables on our enemies. Orochimaru was struck down with Super Sonic's power and Kakashi has reported that he may be dead, although no body was recovered. Sai, meanwhile, cornered Deidara and prevented him from escaping, but he couldn't capture him. Deidara was only beaten when Naruto returned and teamed up with Tails to destroy his jutsus. After his arm was severed and his chakra drained, Deidara ran away with his partner, Tobi._

_While recovering from the battle, we located the team to the G.U.N Federation's underground fortress outside of Central City. Tails and Naruto should be safe from the Akatsuki there. G.U.N declared Akatsuki to be a terrorist organization and they have made it a top priority to monitor Akatsuki's activities. Aside from Deidara and Tobi, Tails has reported that Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi are also on Mobius. It is likely that Itachi was able to use the Mangekyou Sharingan to teleport his team to Mobius. The whereabouts of the other Akatsuki members are currently unknown. With all seven chaos emeralds in Sonic's hand, we can focus our attention primarily on Akatsuki. Kakashi summoned Pakkun to bring Sonic, Naruto, Tails, and the rest of the team to our base where we will gather to prepare for the next mission._

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**Chapter XIV: Vengeance from the Grave**

For some people at the meeting, it was a new experience to be debriefed of their mission by a little wrinkled pug dog. Sonic tried his best not to laugh. Unfortunately, his self restraint sucked and his stifled chuckling ended up infecting Tails, who sat next to him. For Pakkun's part, he wore his most serious face yet. For Sonic, that only made the scene even more priceless. Shadow helped to balance the mood in the room by looking extra pissed off. Partly because he didn't get what the faker thought was so funny and partly because of what Pakkun had to say.

"Orochimaru is definitely alive," Pakkun stated, his gravelly voice rang out in all directions in the vast hi-tech war room so that everyone seated at the round table heard him. "The Hebi Sannin suffered some severe injuries from Super Ino Sonic, but he only faked his death. Most probably he wanted to lie low, leaving us to fight the Akatsuki for him. He's weakened now, but he'll strike for the chaos emeralds when the first opportunity presents itself."

Kakashi briefly lifted his nose out of his Icha Icha book to face the blue hedgehog seated across the table. "Sonic, since you're the one safeguarding the emeralds that means you're going to be his number one target."

"I heard he likes little boys. Now he wants little hedgehogs?" Sonic grunted. "What do you think I should do about Oro?"

"Strike him first," Kakashi said, snapping the book shut. "We have to find his hideout and catch him before he has the chance to plan. I want all our Konoha teams to assemble for this mission. Essentially, this is an assassination mission and we need to hit Orochimaru hard and fast. Outnumber him and take him down while he's still weak."

"Agreed," Yamato spoke firmly. "The Akatsuki tend to pull back for awhile after a mission whether they succeed or fail. This allows them to receive instructions from their leader and carefully plan out their next move. That gives us time to focus our attention on Orochimaru. We won't have a chance like this again."

"The President has charged G.U.N with leading an investigation on the Akatsuki to track their movements," Rouge said. "I spoke to the Commander and he will allow us to give you whatever information we can dig up on these guys while you concentrate on Orochimaru."

"Are you all right with that, Rouge?" Knuckles asked warily. "Snooping after the Akatsuki?"

"I also contacted the Chaotix. Vector said he's interested in working on the case and Espio has a lot lf knowledge on how ninjutsu works. I'm a ninja too, Knuxie." Rouge said. "The world's top secret agent, remember? In a few days time, I'll give you all the juicy details of their evil organization. I'll even bring you a nice Akatsuki cloak as a souvenir."

"I don't really do cloaks," Knuckles waved his hand dismissively. "You can give it to Shadow."

Shadow snorted. "Can we just get back to talking about Orochimaru?"

"It didn't take long for me to sniff out his hideout," Pakkun continued. "He set up a base for his Mobius operations right here on South Island."

"Sonic, you've raced through the zones on South Island countless of times, haven't you?" Kakashi asked. "You would know them better than anyone. Would you be able to guide us to Orochimaru's hideout?"

"Why not?" Sonic shrugged. "Just tell me who else is coming along."

Naruto slammed his fist down hard on the metal table. "I'm going for sure! Sasuke's dead because of that creep and he's gonna pay! Sakura-chan is coming too. Right, Sakura-chan?"

"But Naruto," Sakura protested. "You just recovered from your Kyuubi transformation and on top of that, you're arm is still healing from those jutsus you used."

"No worries, Sakura-chan," Naruto grinned widely. "I never felt this good in my life. Shadow healed everything in no time using those chaos powers of his, right Shadow?"

Shadow let out an irritated Sasuke-like hn. "It was nothing. I spent a hell of a lot of energy trying not to kill you before. All that work would've gone to waste if I left you to die again."

"Ano, we appreciate all your help, Shadow-kun," Hinata bowed her head to the dark hedgehog. "I'm happy that you took care of Naruto-kun and I so quickly."

"Either way, it's good to see you're a practical thinker, Shadow," Kakashi said dryly. "Of course, with your abilities and your ties to the chaos emeralds, we'd like to have you aboard our mission, too."

"Count me out," Shadow folded his arms over his white furry chest.

"You're not coming?" Sonic asked in surprise. "What's the matter, Groucho? Don't want to belong to any club that'd have you as a member?"

"I'll chaos control over when I feel like it, but for now, I've spent way too much of my energies healing everybody and I'm exhausted. It's not the way I'm used to manipulating chaos energy. That aside, I don't feel like teaming up with you losers right now."

Sonic shrugged. "If that's how you feel…," he turned back to Pakkun. "So where are we going anyway?"

The pug motioned a paw to the computerized map grid on the wall screen. "Orochimaru has set himself up an underground base here on South Island, a remote location called Labyrinth Zone." At that word, a single region on the map lit up, indicating its location. "You've visited that zone before, haven't you, Sonic?"

Sonic froze. He knew that particular zone well. Too well.

"Labyrinth Zone? Damn, I hate Labyrinth Zone."

"It doesn't take a genius to tell that Labyrinth Zone is a troublesome place," Shikamaru observed. "So what's its story?"

"Labyrinth is the single most hated zone on all of Mobius," Tails explained. "It's an ancient dungeon maze submerged underwater. According to legend, it was one of the first places the chaos emeralds were discovered, which is plausible since the zone has a large deposit of magic crystals."

"Of all places, the creep had to pick that nightmare fish tank as his hideout," Sonic moaned. "That was the only place I ever seriously thought I was gonna die."

"Now, Sonic. I'm sure we all hate water zones just as much as you do," Kakashi said calmly. "I hate it when my book gets wet. But that doesn't change the fact that Orochimaru is down there and he's plotting something very nasty…for you."

"How nasty are you talking about? Nasty as in—"

"Soniiiiiic! Where are you?" Sonic winced as the obsessed voice of Amy Rose as it was coming down the hall behind the closed doors.

"Oh, no," Sonic groaned and buried his head in his hands. "I'm so not in the mood for this right now."

Sonic started to panic as he heard Amy's boots thumping on the floor in the outer hall, becoming louder and closer. She was moving in fast and he was cornered.

"I've got to hide somewhere. Think, Sonic. Think!"

Sonic's eyes darted this way and that way, until he saw Akamaru sleeping in a corner. Then a light bulb went off in his head.

"Nobody tell her where I am, all right?" Sonic instructed. Just as the door to the war room creaked open, Sonic ran up to the big white dog.

Sweat poured down his face when Sonic caught a glimpse of the pink hedgehog coming in. With no time left to spare, Sonic pried open the unexpected dog's mouth and climbed inside. His jaws snapped shut and Akamaru awoke with a start just as Amy burst inside.

A perplexed look covered her pink face. Sonic was nowhere to be found.

Kakashi buried his face back into his book, where he felt it belonged. From what he saw, he did not want to get involved in this.

"That is so weird," Amy scratched her head in confusion. "I was so sure I heard my Sonic's voice. Wasn't he just in here?"

Nobody answered. Nobody knew what to say.

When Amy was a safe enough distance away, Akamaru couldn't handle the spiky blue ball bulging in his mouth anymore and spat the blue hedgehog out. Sonic tumbled onto the floor, every inch of him dripping with slobber.

"Worth it. Totally worth it," said Sonic, swiping the saliva from his eyes.

Everyone present could only stare gobsmacked at Slobber Sonic.

"I think we've wasted enough time talking. Clean yourself up, Sonic. We're leaving immediately."

"Think of it this way. Can Labyrinth Zone really be any worse than Akamaru's mouth?"

Moments later, as the team gathered outside the fortress, Sonic noticed that Knuckles was standing alone, doing nothing. Rouge had already flown off on her own mission, so this was the perfect opportunity to talk to the big guy.

"Hey, Knuckles. I was just thinking."

"There's a first…"

"Very funny, Knucklehead. You know that once we finish Orochimaru, the chaos emeralds will be safe, right?"

The echidna shook his head. "The emeralds will never be safe. Even after you defeat Orochimaru, someone else will just come along and try to take them."

"That's my point exactly, Big Red. They're just gonna keep on comin'. It's starting to get frustrating."

"Nothing can be done about it. You know the deal."

"Yeah, but actually I was thinking," Sonic took a breath as he got ready for what he was gonna say next. "Maybe this time we should just ditch all these emeralds and forget about them once and for all?"

"Excuse me?" Knuckles asked, shocked at Sonic's suggestion.

"I'm serious. Let's give them away to the Leaf Ninjas or something. They can take it back to their planet. Let somebody else worry about it for a change."

"You can't be serious…"

"I can when I realize what a joke our jobs are," Sonic said heavily. "I've had my fun being Super Sonic. It's getting real old and I'm bored. I also don't like having to worry that someone is going to make me transform into a psycho killing machine. When you get right down to it, these chaos emeralds are so…troublesome."

"Sonic, we don't even know what would happen if the chaos emeralds are separated from Mobius. If they're gone, it could affect the fabric of our universe. Do you want to risk that?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I just had to say it, though," Sonic sighed. "Then again, after you've faced a guy like Oro, how bad can everyone else be?"

"You tell me once you've come back. I, on the other hand, am going back to my island. The Master Emerald needs me."

"You're not coming, either?"

"Guardian duty calls. I'm not going with you, but that doesn't mean I won't help you, so catch," Knuckles tossed what looked like a tiny green chaos emerald into Sonic's hand.

"The Guiding Star Gem?" Sonic asked, recognizing the golden star pattern etched in the emerald's surface.

"Use that if you're in a really serious jam. Normally, I wouldn't give you an item like that, but I know what you're up against," Knuckles said in a dangerous tone. With that, he broke into a run and then glided away.

"Knuckles isn't coming with us?" Tails asked as he walked up to Sonic. "We're really being deserted, aren't we? I guess it's just you and me, Sonic."

"Yeah? I was pretty sure Amy would try to tag along."

"She's still pissed off at Shadow for breaking her favorite hammer," Tails said. "She's got nothing to fight with."

"Even so, when has that ever stopped Amy before?"

"She also said that you're not exactly at you're best when you have to deal with water zones. She said she was going to stay behind and torture Shadow instead."

Sonic couldn't stop grinning. "So my hydrophobia finally did some good. I'm not really that big an ass when I'm down there, am I?"

Tails shook his head. "No way, Sonic," Sonic nodded approvingly. He could always count on Tails to be on his side. "Big asses can float."

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Getting through the entrance of Labyrinth Zone was easy enough. After they journeyed out of the civilized zones into more remote territories, Sonic showed them the entrance to the deep underground Labyrinth: A vast cave with the statues of demonic creatures greeting their arrival. The cavern mouth breathed out a thick cool mist and a winding stone stairway beckoned them into the dark subterranean realm below.

A billowing sandstorm created by Gaara blew around the dungeon's entrance. Gaara and Temari had set themselves up to guard the cave's only entrance. For the sake of the mission, nobody else would be allowed out to enter or leave without getting past them.

By the time everyone descended to the bottom of the stairs, a small bar of light from above was the last they would see of sunlight for the rest of their jounrey. From there on in, the dungeon was illuminated by the soft glow of the crystals growing from the ceiling and the floor.

"They call this place Labyrinth Zone for a reason," Sonic said in a low voice as he looked glumly at the lake of water that washed in front of his feet. "It's definitely a zone and the labyrinth part is pretty true, too. There is a sick amount of twists and turns these tunnels take that go underground for miles. Don't expect to find any stairs. You're gonna have to jump to get around. Once you take a path, it's very hard to turn back. The walls can move and have a way of shifting and changing positions, so you can never really tell where you are."

"So where do you think Orochimaru is hiding out, huh?" Naruto shouted out loudly, creating an obnoxious sounding echo that bounced all around the walls.

"Stop shouting," Sonic hissed. "Here, you use your indoor voice."

"What are you talking about? This is how I always talk," Naruto said, just as loudly.

Sonic's teeth started to grind. "I'm right in front of you. Just because I move faster than sound doesn't mean I can't hear it."

"Sheesh, you're acting really pissy today," Naruto grumbed. "I thought you were supposed to be cool."

"Uh, Sonic's just a little anxious 'cuz he can't swim," Tails tried to explain.

"You've never been down here before, Tails, so I don't expect you to understand, but I'm anxious because we've just entered the biggest death trap on Mobius. I'm anxious because this place can kill you in a thousand ways. Go too fast and you'll get crushed or impaled by spikes. Go too slow and you'll drown. And don't ask me how, but somehow I managed to get hit by fireballs underwater. Did I mention how freezing this water can be? There's actually a colony of penguins that live down here. It can get so cold that—"

Tails ran up to the water and leapt in. The huge splash that ensued interrupted Sonic's speech after soaking him from head to toe. Tails was happily doing a backstroke across the water.

"The water's really nice today, Sonic. You're gonna be fine," Tails promised.

Sonic sighed. "Don't kill the mood, Tails. Robuttnik's Jaws robots are gone, but a predator could still be lurking in the depths to drag you under and eat you. That's just one other thing about the most dangerous zone of all time."

"That's preposterous!" Shino interrupted. "Never before have I heard such blatant exaggeration. You can't seriously believe that this is the most dangerous zone ever."

"Hey, Shino. Have you been standing there the whole time?" Naruto asked innocently.

"You're very hurtful, Naruto…" After a quick moment of sulking, Shino turned back to Sonic. "My bugs have surveyed the other zones and I have seen that there are far worse ones than this. Marble Zone, for instance, is a scorching landscape with unstable crumbling ruins practically sinking in a river of lava. I predict that we would face a forty percent greater mortality rate if our party were to venture into that zone."

"So you think lava is worse than water?" Sonic challenged. "Well, if you like statistics so much, then I'll tell you that more people die by drowning in their toilet bowls than they do by falling into volcanoes."

"That's because they are more idiots than there are volcanoes," Shino countered.

"No, he's right, Shino," Kiba interjected. "Akamaru almost lost his life that way. I remember it happened years ago when he was just a tiny puppy and I brought him to school for the very first time…" Kiba then turned and glared viciously at Naruto. "And then Naruto went and flushed him down the toilet!"

"That was forever ago and you're still mad at me for that?"

"Baka! Do you have any idea how badly Akamaru was traumatized that day?"

"It was an accident! I thought he was a white turd!"

"I knew you'd give a lame-ass excuse like that, but damn! That's the most idiotic one yet!"

"What else do you want?" Naruto threw his hands up in the air. "I said I was sorry!"

"Enough of this foolishness," Shino said forcefully. "Let's just get this over with." Having said that, Shino disrobed his cloaks, revealing his unbelievably ripped six pack, he walked up to the waters. "These obstacles will not be a challenge. I will send my bugs to scan every nook and cranny. They will allow me to navigate this so called maze."

"Team 8 specializes in survival. We know how to handle places like these," Kiba boasted. "Don't forget that Akamaru can swim like a beast. Besides, if a bunch of penguins can survive down here, then we should do just fine. In fact, we'll probably be the first to find Orochimaru."

"Yeah, you do that," Sonic said, "but since I'm one of the only Mobians to go through this maze and come out alive, I'll give some advice. First—"

Sonic stopped when he heard a loud slurping sound bouncing off the walls. The ancient tunnels seemed to amplify the slurp sounds to make them extra disgusting. It didn't take long to find the culprit—Naruto absently slurping up a cup of ramen.

Sonic sighed tiredly. "Stop slurping so loudly," Sonic snapped.

"Sorry, I guess I do that when I'm really hungry," Naruto replied and went right back to his noodle slurping.

Sonic's face fell into his hand. They hadn't even gotten in the water yet. "It's not a good idea to eat right before swimming. It causes all kinds of problems."

Naruto shrugged and tossed away his empty ramen cup. "Oh, I never planned on doing any swimming. I've got the perfect jutsu for underwater travel."

He lightly bit his thumb and slammed his hand on the ground.

"**Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"**

The markings of a summoning circle spread out from beneath Naruto's palm and smoke exploded into the air, giving entrance to one big fiery red toad dressed in yakuza garb.

"S'up, everybody," the toad greeted.

"Say hi to everyone, Gamakichi."

Gamakichi, one of Naruto's most frequent summons, used to be able to sit on Naruto's head. After three years of growth, the frog had grown at the same rate as Akamaru. Now, he was like the toad samurais that Jiraiya summoned. He even sported a fancy katana strapped to his back. A sign of an honorable rank in the toad kingdom.

"You got bigger, Gamakichi."

"That's cuz' it's been forever since the last summon. What's going down?"

"We need to travel underwater," Naruto said, "so could we all climb inside your mouth and have you swim us through this zone?"

"What one of my pop's pipes did he give you to smoke? My stomach ain't got the stuff to take you all in. I can do it, but I can only hold a maximum capacity of two people. You and someone else."

"That's it? Only two people?" Naruto murmured. "I knew I should've summoned Gamatatsu."

"Screw the yellow fatass," Gamakichi snapped. "He'd get so hungry that he'd digest you."

"Just pick someone, Naruto," Kakashi said. "Choose someone who can help navigate you through this maze as quickly as possible."

"Okay… so who here is good at navigating?" Naruto scratched his head thoughtfully. "Byakagun can see through walls and stuff so that's a good power. I guess I could pick either Hinata or Neji. Being alone with Neji sounds too intense for me, so that would mean…"

Somebody's face in the group was getting red. Very very red.

"Hey, Hinata! You wanna come take a ride with me in the frog?" Naruto finally asked.

Hinata could only stare blankly at Naruto as her face now became as red as Gamakichi's skin. A-ano…um…I…"

She tried to get her mouth to say 'yes,' but no sound could come out. Her mind and heart were overloaded and overheated. There was nothing she could say at a moment like this.

She would get to be alone with Naruto-kun inside the belly of a frog. It was a dream come true.

"Let's go, already! I ain't got all day," the toad growled and without waiting another second, a long sticky tongue shot out of his mouth and wrapped itself around Hinata's waist, forcefully slurping up the poor girl inside. Naruto ran in just before Gamakichi closed his mouth and entered the water.

"Don't faint again, Hinata," Naruto's voice was heard like a muffled echo inside the frog. "We need your eyes."

"It looks like their transportation is solved," Kakashi said. "Neji, have your team take the opposite route of Naruto and Hinata's. That will assure that we will cover all blind spots."

"Understood," Neji nodded.

"Sakura, since Hinata is with Naruto, you should fill her spot in Shino and Kiba's team."

"No problem," Sakura said as she stared dreamily at Shino's body.

"The bugs fine tune up his muscles," Kiba whispered in Sakura's ear. She wasn't sure whether to be amazed or grossed out at that.

Kakashi then turned to Sai. "And you will act as scout using your artistic talents."

"Meanwhile, I will send out some wood clones to hide and keep watch at key locations," Yamato said.

"So that's about it," Kakashi finished. "Sonic, you're obviously with Tails and I'll lend you guys Pakkun to give you a hand."

With that, the teams scattered in all directions, leaving Sonic and Tails to themselves.

"So, Tails? Did you bring your Kyuubi Mech with you? Maybe you can turn it into a Kyuubi sub or something?"

"Sorry, Sonic. I wish I did, but it got trashed in the fight, so I left it in the shop. I want to take some time to examine it and see its limits. Next time, okay?

Sonic heaved the gloomiest sigh in the world. "It can't be helped. So what do you think? Should I start slowly with my feet, or just jump in head first?"

"Take it easy, blue boy," Pakkun spoke up. "You don't have to go underwater. I hate swimming also, so I found us a way through that doesn't involve any H20."

Sonic spun around with an open smile wide enough to swallow the pug whole.

"Tell me!" Sonic demanded hurriedly.

"Orochimaru is bound to have thousands of snakes crawling all over the place. Some of those species of snakes are strictly land reptiles, so they can't survive in water. Orochimaru must have built a conduit for the snakes to travel through the Labyrinth while avoiding the underwater hazards."

"And that way should lead us directly to Oro's hangout," Tails concluded.

"Sweet!" Sonic shouted with joy and lifted the little pug dog high into the air as he danced. "Oh, Pakkun, I could kiss your ugly wrinkly face!"

"Don't even try it," the pug said and sank his teeth right into the hedgehog's black nose.

"All right. Let's just go," Sonic said nasally as he pressed onto his injured nose.

As they departed, nobody noticed a strange creature materializing through the stone ceiling.

Seeing all, but unseen, the creature his amongst the vines, the massive mouth of what appeared to be a venus fly trap concealed his face. Beneath the plant's mouth, he had the face of man and a cloak of a black cloak with red clouds. Even if one were to get past the venus fly trap to behold his real face, the inhumanity would not end there. The man had two faces. One black and one white. A pair of shimmering golden eyes stared out of the two sides of his face. They were the all seeing eyes of the Akatsuki's scout, Zetsu.

"Hmmm…" he asked himself in a raspy voice. "Who should we follow first?"

* * *

Deep in the lower catacombs of Labyrinth Zone, a young silver haired bespectacled man made his way down the dank dark hallway. Nothing was there to light his way but the soft glow of the magic crystals growing from the walls. That was one of the reasons why Yakushi Kabuto chose this zone for his master's Mobius base. Besides for the sannin's penchant for subterranean lairs, the crystals exhibited unique healing properties that were of great fascination to the medic nin and they were a miracle for Orochimaru's current condition.

As soon as Kabuto opened the door to his patient's room, the dark hallway was swathed with bright light. Kabuto entered to find himself in a vast oval shaped chamber. His glasses reflected the colorful lights of the biggest and brightest crystals taken from around Labyrinth Zone. He personally collected them and set the most powerful into the ring shaped lake in the center of the chamber.

At the far edge of the pool, his master, Orochimaru leaned back with the lower half of his body submerged in steaming, bubbling waters. His eyes were closed as he soaked up the rejuvenating waters.

"How is the regenerating crystal bath doing for your wounds, Orochimaru-sama?" Kabuto asked.

Orochimaru had sensed Kabuto's coming in the distance and his yellow eyes flared open as he gazed towards the chamber's entrance where his personal medic nin arrived. Kabuto waited in silence to be beckoned inside, and strode in holding clean bandages and his own potent medicinal balm.

"I believe that it won't be long before I can regain my full strength," Orochimaru said in a relaxed tone. "I won't require much more medical attention."

"That is good to hear. Is there anything else I can get you then, Orochimaru-sama?"

"Yes, Kabuto. Tell me what news do you bring me from the surface world?"

"It's as we predicted. Akatsuki teams were seen roaming the countryside. So far, two teams have moved to capture the two tailed kitsune. Currently, he still eludes their grasp."

"Ku ku ku. Perfect. I do hope that young Miles Prower does not fall into their hands. We wouldn't want that to happen at all."

"There's more…" Kabuto stopped to think and choose carefully choose his next words. This was the kind of information that Orochimaru to kill the closest of his subordinates. For sure, Kabuto was invaluable, but even Orochimaru was knwon to let his anger get the better of him. "I've…verified the reports and it's certain that all the members of Akatsuki are here on Mobius right now."

Orochimaru sat in uncomfortable silence to let the news sink in. And it was the kind of news worth killing Kabuto over, but at this time, the snake lord knew that now was not time to be so excessive. "All of them, you say? That's not good. So in addition to Itachi and the others, we must also worry about him," Orochimaru paused to look around as if the topic needed to remain in utmost secrecy. "That must mean they've captured most of the bijuu. They're coming close to the final stages of their plan."

"It's not safe for us on this planet any longer," Kabuto stated nervously. "We have to leave as soon as possible."

"Do not worry that much, Kabuto. Our business on this planet will soon be finished. The chaos emeralds are so very close. I can feel them."

"Yes, that was the other news. Sonic the Hedgehog has entered the Labyrinth. He and the Konoha teams are looking for you."

"Excellent. Now we have the opportunity to take back the chaos emeralds and foil the Akatsuki's plans at the same time."

"How do you mean?"

"We'll kill those two Kyuubi brats and make our escape just as I take the chaos emeralds back from the hedgehog. That way, I'll have all the power and without the Kyuubi, Akatsuki will be ruined. They will try to confront me, but by then it will be too late, ku ku ku ku ku ku."

"A bold move, Orochimaru-sama, but how will we be able to pull that off against these formidable opponents?"

"Leave Sonic to me to handle personally. As for the jinchuurkis, I will allow my men to take care of them. They must have split up into groups to find me. Your job is to monitor everything and give me updates."

"As you wish," Kabuto bowed his head.

"You can come out now, Suigetsu," Orochimaru called out.

At the Snake Sannin's call, a pillar of water rose up from the pool. It took the shape of a human, slowly changing from clear liquid to solid human flesh. The new figure even formed clothes for himself, white pants, and a purple vest.

"I take it you called me here for some lame assignment, Orochi?" Suigetsu asked.

"Kabuto, explain the details of our mission to him."

Kabuto adjusted the bridge of his glasses, partly out of habit, but also to hide the somewhat venomous glare that burned from his eyes whenever he caught the "waterboy" in his line of sight. Along with Sasuke, this guy was one of the few of Orochimaru's subordinates that had no fear for his master. It was scandalous in his eyes for anyone to speak to Orochimaru-sama in such informal terms. A sure warning sign of betrayal in his eyes. But more than his rudeness, Kabuto despised the row of razor sharp teeth that made it look like Suigetsu was about to lunge at his throat at any second.

Suigetsu actually was thinking of lunging for Kabuto's throat at any second.

"Essentially, Orochimaru-sama wants you to assassinate a number of troublemakers that have invaded our base," Kabuto began. "There are a lot of them. Most are effectively jounin level…"

"Leaf ninjas?" Suigetsu interrupted.

Kabuto nodded. "They're coming and they brought some native Mobians with them. Take out as many as you can, but remember that you're number one priority is to kill Uzumaki Naruto and the two-tailed kitsune, Miles Prower. Only that can assure the Kyuubi's destruction."

Suigetsu shook his head. "It's hard to believe that they actually sent poor old Sasuke sailing up the river. Poor Karin will be so disappointed. She always had her eye on Sasuke. You must be pissed too, Orochimaru."

"It may seem that way to your water logged brain," Orochimaru said with a smile. "But I promise you that things aren't always what they seem."

"Whatever, I'd just better get my reward you promised me."

Orochimaru motioned for Kabuto to produce the desired reward. He nodded and unrolled a specially sealed scroll on the floor. Suigetsu watched with hungry eyes as Kabuto released the seal in a puff of smoke.

"Orochimaru-sama always keeps his promises," Kabuto said as he stepped out of the fog, presenting Suigetsu with a gigantic sword, heavily wrapped in bandage cloth.

"Sweet," a murderous grin appeared through Suigetsu's teeth. Like a ravenous beast, he tore into the bandages with his sharp teeth, revealing one of the biggest and baddest swords to ever grace the ninja world.

Kabuto stepped back in horror, but Orochimaru merely grinned in amusement. To him, it was like watching a child greedily opening up his birthday presents.

"Kubikiri Houchi, (Head Chopping Cleaver) Momochi Zabuza's one of a kind sword. It's hard to imagine it in the hands of somebody other than the big guy, but it's for the best that it gets used again rather than just rust in the ground."

Kabuto cast his eyes on the mist nin doubtfully. "Are you sure you can hold that big thing?"

"Hey, I know I'm not a tank like Zabuza or Kisame, but I trained for years in the combat of big ass swords. With weapons like these, you've got to learn to be like water, to flow and crash all with the right balance."

"Don't be overconfident," Kabuto said. "There are a lot of enemies."

"Are you kidding?" Suigetsu asked with a sharp grin. "We're in Labyrinth Zone. This place was practically built with my name on it. They don't stand a chance. I do hope there are strong opponents, though."

"If you are satisfied, then you may go," Orochimaru finally said. "Our enemies have already arrived. Just remember to kill them quickly and bring back their heads. Time is of the essence."

"All right, I'm off," Suigetsu said and hoisted sword over his shoulder as he walked off. "By the way, Orochimaru, whenever you see Kabuto adjusting his glasses, he's really flipping you off."

"Your subordinates seem to get more insolent with every passing day, Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto sneered.

"Ignore him," Orochimaru said dismissively. "Hozuki Suigetsu…that murderous boy will one day become the greatest of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist and it will all be because of me. Guided by my power, he will reach that goal."

* * *

Sonic pushed a loose tile out of the way us he dug out of the dirt filled tunnel. Even the musty air was a welcome breath after burrowing through winding snake holes.

"About time we got out of there, huh, little bro?" he asked as Tails and Pakkun emerged from the hole. "You have no idea how good it feels to go al the way through Labyrinth Zone and still be dry as a bone."

"Are we there yet?" Tails asked, scoping the surroundings. Digging through the snake holes brought them to he upper regions of the dungeon. They stood on a high platform with the rivers rushing far below them. Standing across their platform was the carved statue of a demon's head with its mouth opened wide. A tall waterfall rushed out of its mouth and flowed straight down hundreds of feet to the watery bottom.

"Orochimaru can be found through that cave entrance," Pakkun said, pointing to the demon's head. "Once you go inside, it's a long, but dry stairwell all the way to the bottom. This is just one of the many snake entrances."

"Niiiiice!" Sonic's tongue sizzled with excitement. This whole trip was a major breakthrough for all hydrophobes everywhere. "Pakkun, you simply rock."

"I'm not trained for combat situations like these, so you guys are on your own while I report back to Kakashi." Pakkun said as he broke into a run.

"Come back and guide us through these zones anytime," Sonic waved goodbye, then turned to Tails. "So I guess all we gotta do is go into that inner area and it's straight on to Oro's party, huh?"

"Yeah...I guess so..." Tails muttered with a far off look. The hesitation in his voice was unmistakeable.

"You look worried, Tails. Everything all right?"

"There's a lot of mist coming out of that cave," Tails said. "Looks kinda creepy."

Sonic glanced to the cave entrance where there was a thick, soupy mist coming out and filling the air. "Yeah…but I don't think that's the only thing coming out." He squinted his eyes to make out a human figure approaching. Someone with an oversized sword strapped to his back.

"Damn! You guys are really fast. I didn't have to come looking for you at all. All I had to do was walk out that door."

To quote a friend of mine…" Sonic began, "This looks like it's going to be troublesome."

"Miles Prower," the swordsman's voice was grim as death. "I have come to take your life."

"Another one of your friends, Tails?" Sonic asked.

Tails shook his head. "I have no idea who that is, but he's the second shark tooth guy with a giant sword I've seen. Maybe he's Kisame's brother?"

Suigetsu rolled back his head and laughed. "Kisame's brother. Heh. That's rich. Sasuke never told you about me? Hozuki Suigetsu? That's not cool," the swordsman shook his head. "Then again, he never talked liked to talk about anything."

"I don't know what you're deal is, laughing boy," Sonic said, "but Tails doesn't have any time to be captured."

"That's good," Suigetsu crouched into an attack stance. "I'm not here to capture you. I'm here to kill ya."

"Not while there's a breath in my body," Sonic grunted, placing himself in between Tails and the swordsman.

"Yeah," Suigetsu revealed a lethal smirk. "You're right." He let go of the sword to create some rapid hand seals.

"**Suiton: Bakusuihou!" (Exploding water cannons)**

A highly pressurized jet stream shot out of the water with enough speed and power to slam into Sonic's gut and blast the hapless hedgehog into the air, throwing him all the way down, where he crashed into the water and sank like a stone.

"The hedgehog's down," Suigetsu murmured, pulling the oversized katana back into his hands. He seemed to swing it about with ease. "Looks like you're next."

"SONIC!" Tails turned his wide eyes to the spot where Sonic disappeared then to the oversized sword in the white haired killer's hands. He had to save Sonic. Tails ran off in the opposite direction, preparing to dive down into the water and swim after his hydro challenged bro.

He would've made it in had Suigetsu not jumped into his way and threw his sword down on the fox. The sword trapped the kitsune's head with the blade's inner hole. Suigetsu spun the sword around, throwing Tails back against the wall.

"I didn't dunk your pal into the water just so you could go save him," Suigetsu said. "The whole point was so that you and I could fight without any distractions. I want the first victim of my new sword to die in a swordfight, so if you've got a sword, I'd suggest pulling it out now."

Tails held up both empty hands. "Does it look like I have a sword that huge on me?"

"Then you'd better pull something out of those two tails of yours that can match my Kubikiri Houchi. Otherwise, gaze well upon my blade, little kit. The guy who previously owned this sword was my senpai, Momochi Zabuza. His name means 'Never Cut Twice.' Let me show you why."

* * *

Zetsu felt part of his mind and soul pulled from his body and brought into another underground cavern. In the darkness of the cavern, Zetsu watched as eight ghostly figures flickered into existence. A pattern of dim rainbow colors shimmered across their shadowy forms. All that was clearly visible were their eyes that glowed brightly in the darkness.

One of the nine Akatsuki figures took a stand in the center. Few of the members ever saw their leader in person and the astral projection did little to give away his identity, save for an outline of spiky hair and that pair of grayish blue eyes with multiple layers of concentric circles.

"Zetsu, what is the position of the two tailed kitsune?" the Leader asked, his deep voice sounded distorted and hollow.

"He was separated from Sonic the Hedgehog. The kitsune is fighting alone against a subordinate of Orochimaru. His name is Hozuki Suigetsu."

"Suigetsu? Ah, there's a guy I never thought I'd run into on Mobius," Kisame said wistfully. "Now he's competing with us over our goal."

"I must see this with my own eyes," the Leader said gravely. The others already felt a charge of chakra gathering around the multilayered irises in his eyes as his hands came together for a jutsu.

"Tomegane no Jutsu," (Telescope Technique)

The Leader produced a small crystal ball in his shadowy hand. Focusing his chakra into the ball, he activated the very best spying technique. It was a jutsu originally created by Konoha's Third Hokage to keep a protective eye over the village. Its secrets were eventually passed down to the Akatsuki Leader for a much darker purpose.

Inside the crystal ball, all around could clearly see and hear Tails flying through the mazes of the Labyrinth. At times, the white haired swordsman would also come into view when he got close.

"It cannot be stressed how serious our mission is," the Leader spoke. "That is why it was necessary to relocate our entire organization to Mobius. We must capture this kitsune at all costs."

"Orochimaru knows this, un" Deidara said. "That's why he is purposely trying to kill the kitsune so that he could screw with our plans. The yellow eyes bastard is afraid of us, un."

"Maybe, but I think he's afraid of the little guy himself," Kisame proposed. "We know he can display some fearsome powers, but besides that, the kid's been learning ninja techniques for a few days now and he can already hold his own against a murderer like Suigetsu."

"Kisame-dono is right, un," Deidara said. "I saw his eyes as we fought. He was strong, possessing a passionate heart. He had to be in order to defeat me."

"Anyone could've wasted your patsy ass, Deidara-chan," Hidan, Priest of Jashin, a man with fiery purple eyes said. "I still don't think this little runt is worth all this fuss."

"No matter what his current level is, it's still too risky to leave his life in Orochimaru's hands," Itachi broke in.

"Meaning someone needs to bring him in so we can keep him safe," the Leader said.

"All right. Then I'll go," Hidan offered. "I still don't think much of this kitsune, but it gives me the chance to kill Orochimaru. What better to spread the word and the might of Jashin?"

"Forget about it," Hidan's partner, the masked ninja Kakuzu spoke. "This isn't the time for you to be thinking about your religious matters. We're too busy collecting the funds for our organization."

"More of that boring shit?" Hidan scoffed. "Do I look like a banker or something to you?"

"Listen to Kakuzu, Hidan," the Leader said. "Like it or not, your team is in charge of making the money we need. Our stay on Mobius has presented us numerous opportunities to increase our income that Kakuzu has taken advantage of. But besides that, you said it yourself that you don't care about the kitsune's life. That kind of attitude could ruin the mission."

"If you want to send me back on the mission, I'll go," Deidara suggested. "I have the most experience fighting him and I haven't displayed all my artwork, un."

"No. You've contributed your part by giving Mobius a reason to fear Akatsuki, but now, let's the leave the jinchuuriki's capture to someone else."

"That's Leader's way of saying you screwed up big time, Senpai," Tobi said.

"Shut your mouth, Tobi! The way I see it, everything that went wrong is your fault. When we're active again, there's gonna be some changes in our team!"

"If it's a sex change you're talking about, then I think you can skip that step, Senpai."

"Perhaps Itachi and Kisame would make the wisest choice selection," Zetsu added. "Kisame knows this Suigetsu person the best. Itachi may also be interested in going. While investigating Orochimaru, I've uncovered some curious information about Itachi's brother."

"Oh, the foolish one?" Tobi asked. Even with the full mask on, the excitement in his voice showed that he was very interested in Zetsu's words. The same could not be said of Itachi.

"I see," Itachi gave a slight nod. "Very well, but it will take time to get to Labyrinth Zone. Tails could easily be dead by then."

"He will not die," the Leader said, his strange eyes focused more intently on the crystal ball. "As long as I have my own eyes on him, I will decide his fate."

* * *

Sonic thrashed wildly against the dark waters that threatened to drag him down into the murky bottomless depths. He had to get out. Not just to breathe, but to save Tails. No way could he leave his little brother alone with that shark fanged butcher.

Sonic could already hear the dreaded countdown playing in his head. 5...4...3...2...1...0. Through the strength of will alone, Sonic pushed his body upwards and breached the surface, gasping for oxygen. Even with the deepest breath, he could barely get any air. Heaving short breaths, he struggled to reach out and brace himself against a wall.

Sonic coughed hoarsely, expelling some water he swallowed. And some blood.

"I'm bleeding internally," Sonic realized as he wiped the blood from his mouth. "The pressure from that water jutsu must've scrambled my insides pretty good."

Sonic scoped out his surroundings, realizing that he had no idea where he was. Of course, after taking the plunge, he had to get sucked through an aqueduct to another section of the zone. Now, he had no way of finding Tails and Suigetsu and he couldn't move on his own. Going Super Sonic was impossible at this point. His injured body had nowhere near the energy to sustain those chaos emeralds. He was out of options. He was either going to die in this messed up zone or get rescued by Naruto or somebody should that big frog happen to be swimming by.

Sonic was left lying there in the water all alone. Tails and Suigetsu were gone. Worse, the hedgehog scanned his surroundings and found saw, just as he thought, he had no idea where he was.

The ancient chamber laid deathly quiet with only the echoes of water droplets plunking into the underground sea. Only the strange carvings of animals and monsters on the walls came to keep him company. No frogs. No noisy ninjas.

"I'm sorry, Tails. Just try to stay alive for me, okay?" That was the last thought Sonic had before slipping into unconsciousness and sinking back into the sea.

Had Sonic stayed awake, he would have seen not just a frog, or everyone's favorite noisy ninja, but a ship coming this way. A ship being captained by a young raccoon girl with bright blue eyes set against her deep orange fur. She sailed her ship (she called it that, but it was actually just a dinghy) towards the floating hedgehog as she hummed various pirate songs to herself. She stopped abruptly as soon as she spotted a blue hedgehog lying in the water.

"Man overboard!" the boat's sole occupant wailed as she hurriedly sped the boat up towards Sonic.

The raccoon girl over the edge of the boat and poked the blue hedgehog. Not getting any response, she rolled him over, getting his face out of the water. "Hey, I recognize you. Aren't you Sonic the Hedgehog? The Keeper of the Seven Sparkly Gems?"

"No…they're called…Chaos Emeralds…" Sonic said bleary eyed, slipping in and out of he waking world.

Marine shook her head and sighed. "Some mates just weren't cut out for a life of adventure at sea," She grabbed his arms and pulled him out of the water and onto the boat. "You shouldn't lie around like a barnacle for too long out here. These be shark infested waters," she warned.

"Who…are you?" Sonic asked weakly.

"Ahoy there!" the raccoon girl introduced herself with Narutoish exuberance. "I'm Marine of Seagull Island at your service, matey! I'm here because I sail wherever the wind takes me." She frowned suddenly, "Although there's very little wind in this place. I've been lost for awhile. It's been getting lonely here what with me being the captain without a crew. There's not even any pirates to fight down here. Hey! How'd you like to join my crew. We'll set sail for amazing adventures!"

"I've got no time for that. And I've got way worse enemies to worry about than pirates. Orochimaru's out here somewhere and I've got to stop him."

"Orochimaru?" Marine's ears perked up in shock. "The dreaded White Snake? Well, why didn't you say so in the first place. We'll set sail to the white snake's hidden cave right away! Onward ho!"

"Well, at last some luck has finally come to me in this gloomy zone," Sonic smiled to himself as he laid back on the boat.

"Save your strength, me swabbie. That's an order form your new captain," Marine said as she set sail. "You're gonna need to stay strong for the biggest adventure of your life."

Sonic chuckled inwardly. "Marine, you have no idea."

* * *

Tails felt like his head was spinning. He had been doing this chase through the winding pathways of Labyrinth Zone, going up and down, swimming, running, and flying, anything to get away from that maniac with the sword. Swimming away turned to be the worst idea of all. That guy swam faster than a shark with rocket boosters attached to his fins. Even Tails' swift doggy paddling action wasn't enough to shake him. He found that the best course of action was through flight and so Tails panted heavily as he propelled himself up a vertical shaft. Below him, Suigetsu bounced along the walls in hot pursuit, the heavy sword barely slowing him down. At least Suigetsu was also slowed down by the traps coming out of everywhere.

"Don't you know how to do anything but fly away?" Suigetsu called up. "I heard that Kisame lost to you."

Tails didn't say anything. He didn't even turn back. His eye caught the sharp glint of the blade and that was enough to for him to spin those tails faster. The last thing he needed was to look into his eyes and face the mist swordsman's vicious killer intent.

In between the heavy panting, Tails still managed to smile. Sonic was still alive, after all. He managed to feel out his chakra in tjhis zone. His chakra sense wasn't fine tuned enough to know where Sonic was, but he was alive, that much was certain. And if Sonic was alive, there was still reason to fight.

Tails finally reached the top of the shaft and turned a corner. Suigetsu was close behind, but Tails hopped on a switch on the floor that sent a stone door coming down, sealing the mist swordsman behind.

Suigetsu glowered at the offending door. No way in except via the switch on the other side. He didn't appreciate these obstructions. And he definitely didn't like that someone was using the ways of the Labyrinth against him. He might've been able to revert to a puddle of liquid and seep through the bottom crack, but he was too pissed off and it felt much better to just raise the sword high and swing it through. In seconds, the thick door crumbled into a pile of rubble and Suigetsu made his entrance at the edge of the shaft. When he entered the upper level, Tails was nowhere in sight.

Suigetsu stared down the upper level and frowned when he saw that the corridor wasn't straight at all. He was surprised that the little kitsune was able to put this much distance between them. Orochimaru was most likely getting impatient at this point. He sped up, his sword drawn and ready. He raced through the corridor and turned without even slowing down.

And then he stopped abruptly when he found the corridor ended with nothing but a sharp edge and a drop all the way down another straight shaft. Waiting for him at the precipice was the little fox he was looking for. He hovered into the air so that his stare was level with the eyes of the killer swordsman.

"So you finally stopped running. Nowhere to go, eh? Are you finally ready to die?"

"I'm tired of running. Sonic's not dead and I don't plan on dying today, either."

Tails whipped out a small scroll. He sent a bit of his chakra into the unrolled parchment, creating a cloud of smoke. Suigtsu readied his attack stance, prepared to counter any shuriken or other weapons the demon kitsune might throw his way.

The last thing he expected was for a shotgun to emerge from the scroll and fall into the little demon's hands. Tails was actually hoping that Shadow would come along to see this technique of his. He was sure the dark hedgehog wopuld approve. With one quick pump, Tails aimed the long barrel directly at the mist nin and fired.

Too fast to doge, Suigetsu took the shot to the chest, blasting a gaping hole right through his body.

Water, not blood, splashed everywhere.

Suigetsu staggered back. His face looked strained as he mentally sent water flowing to the bullet hole, returning him back to normal.

Tails tried not to look too surprised. Suigetsu immediately took advantage of that to attack. Even before the wound finished closing up, he lunged forward and slashed at the fox. With the barrel still smoking hot, Tails pumped rapidly and fired. One side of the swordsman head exploded on impact. Tails flinched back as a cool spray of water, instead of hot sticky blood, soaked into his fur.

Suigetsu's shark grin turned vicious, as his razor-pointed teeth bared in a snarl and he lurched over in preparation to strike. Tails stepped back, he gun shaking in his hand. His sharky grin was creepy enough, but it was downright freaky when combined with a huge hole in the head where his right eye should've been.

"I know you must be bugging out. After that crazy attack of yours not killing me," Suigetsu said as his face melted into liquid and reformed everything back in place. "In the last few seconds of your life, you'd better find a way to kill me, but just so you feel better, I'll just tell you that hurt like shit."

Suigetsu swung the massive Kubikiri Houchi in a huge arc. With a quick burst of fiery red chakra, Tails sprang above the sword's range and flipped over Suigetsu's head. While still caught off guard in mid swing, Tails pushed the gun barrel into his back and pulled the trigger.

This time, Tails fully embraced the refreshing wave of water that washed over him. What made even happier was seeing Suigetsu nearly blown in half by the close range shot. The mist nin groaned in agony, trying to reshape his mutilated body and at the same time, trying to hold onto his sword.

One quick tail whip ruined all that and Suigetsu was thrown off balance where he slipped off the edge pf the platform and plunged all the way down the shaft. From above, Tails smiled and perked up his ears to hear an angry scream that ended with one satisfying splashing sound followed by the less pleasant sound of human flesh being impaled by a bed of sharp spikes.

"Did that kill him?" Tails wondered. Peering over the edge, he saw Suigetsu had fully melted into a puddle and dripped off the spikes. Slowly, Suigetsu strained to summon his chakra and pulled his liquid form to once again take on the right shape.

Suigetsu was now visibly pissed. So much so that his liquid body might very well have come close to reaching a steaming boiling point.

"Should've guessed not," Tails thought glumly.

With his body repaired and whole again, Suigetsu stared straight up the shaft, his misty eyes piercing into the blue eyes of his fox prey.

Suigetsu's shark grin returned in full measure.

Gripping tightly the massive cleaver in his hand, the mist nin slung the huge sword onto his back and rapidly threw his hands to perform his next seal. A brilliant silver aura radiated from Suigetsu's body and sword as he poured out all his chakra to take control of all the Labryinth's waters.

"**Ryoutou Suiryuudan no Jutsu!" (Double-headed Water Dragon Blast Technique)**

The sea came alive and sprouted two enormous roaring dragon heads that both went lunging for Tails. The tsunami rose up in is serpentine form and came after Tails with bites powerful enough to snap him in half and with crushing force strong enough to smash his bones to dust.

A glowing aura of red chakra surrounded Tails as he took off in a burst of speed as the snaking dragons reared back and dove after him, their monstrous jaws snapping just behind his tails. The fear instilled in Tails from the deafening roar behind him only fueled his adrenaline and gave him an extra speed boost. The dragons reached out for the fox with liquid claws that scraped along the stone walls as they chased, sending shattered stones and debris flying everywhere.

"If this keeps up, they could bring this entire zone down," Tails thought as he dodged the hail of deadly projectiles on his chase.

Labyrinth was never a place where one could run forever and Tails soon found himself pressed against a stone wall with nowhere to go and the snapping jaws of the dragons closing in. Tails had no way to counter it and not enough chakra to protect himself. He shut his eyes tight and held his tails up as a shield, bracing against the wall for the incoming impact. The roaring that reverberated in the fox's ears was deafening as it came closer and louder.

Just when he though it couldn't get any louder, everything fell silent.

Tails opened his eyes to see the dragon heads had stopped only inches away. They remained there frozen in place, their hollow eyes staring right at him. Suigetsu looked just as perplexed as Tails. Both felt an eerie presence surrounding them as if someone was watching them.

Gazing upon all with his crystal ball with his swirling eyes, all the Leader had to do was stretch out his open hand and the jutsu was under his control. With just a little bit more focus, he sent the jutsu back against its user.

The dragon heads turned their heads back against Suigetsu and simultaneously surged towards the swordsman. They dove down and caught the white haired boy in their jaws. He was completely trapped in the jutsu as the dragons continued on and plunged headfirst into the Labyrinth walls. The resulting clash created an explosion of water that tore the thick walls of stone asunder. Kubikiri Houchi was thrown from his hands as Suigetsu was driven back by the aquatic impact.

"NOOOOO!" the swordsman shrieked as he was separated from his precious zanbatou. Suigetsu tried to pull all his chakra to take command of the raging waters, but they refused to respond, now guided by a hidden eye and an unseen hand. One of the gods favored Tails this day, Suigetsu thought. Whoever this god was, it was not letting Suigetsu go. As the chakra saturated waters tore down the Labyrinth's structures to dust and rubble, Suigetsu and Tails were tossed into a sea of chaos and went tumbling down a bleak abyss.

"Ah, just in time. Leader's got control of this one," Zetsu said.

"He's really tearing this place apart," said the black side of Zetsu. "I'm a little worried that the poor Tails isn't gonna survive this."

"That's his style. The Leader is very thorough," the white side of Zetsu replied. "But I wouldn't worry. He'll guide the kitsune to safety."

"Compared to his eyes, it makes you feel useless sometimes, doesn't it?" Zetsu's black side added.

* * *

For all the work Sonic put into portraying Labyrinth Zone's badass reputation, Naruto was taking this dungeon crawl easy. He sat comfortably (as comfortable as it could get in a frog's insides) while Hinata navigated the tunnels with her Byakagun and Gamakichi swam defensively against the traps that seemingly popped out of every nook and cranny in the dungeon. He dodged the swinging flails, swam aside from the piercing spears, and he stopped just to go "What the Hell…?" when some angry looking statues stared spitting underwater fireballs at him.

"I hope I get something good to eat out of this, Naruto," the toad grumbled sourly. "You always summon me for the biggest crap jobs."

"I'm not surprised you want food," Naruto said. "That's all you frogs ever talk about."

"That's not true. We also talk about smoking and drinking. Speaking of which, I'm stopping to take a sake break. I'm so thirsty."

"Fine. I need to take a piss anyway."

At this point, Hinata's face had gone way past red, beyond even purple, all the way to Sonic the Hedgehog blue.

"Wow, Hinata. You can change colors better than a chameleon," Naruto observed. "Maybe you should come outside, too. Get some air."

Hinata nodded. "Th-that's a good idea, Naruto-kun. I'll keep looking around and I'll tell you if I sense anything."

The toad's mouth opened and the two shinobi stepped out into a vast open chamber where the only floor available was the lake of water. Naruto ran off to find the right spot to do his thing while Gamakichi did as he said he would and removed a ceramic bottle hidden in his vest.

"Would you like to share a drink with me, Hinata-hime?" the toad offered thoughtfully, holding out a drinking saucer.

"N-no thank you," Hinata rapidly shook her head. "That's all right. I need to stay as alert as I can."

She refused the sake for good reason. Hinata's sensed picked up on something.

Something was coming.

"Wait, Naruto-kun, Hinata whispered. "Do you feel that?"

Naruto and Hinata fell silent as Hinata focused her vision. Soon they both heard a low rumbling sound slowly growing louder and louder.

"Naruto-kun, I'm sensing a huge chakra spike coming form nearby."

"What kind of chakra?" Naruto asked.

"There's a few different kinds all mixed together in one place. I think it's because somebody just cast a very high level jutsu. The Kyuubi's chakra is there, too. Then there's…something else."

"So Tails is probably in a fight with someone. He should be all right, but what was the third chakra you mentioned?"

"I don't know, but it was different from anything I've never felt before."

"Whatever it is, it's making the walls shake like crazy," Naruto pointed to the stone walls that were trembling along with the ominous rumbling sound. As the walls started vibrating, tremors started to shake loose the centuries old rock.

"Naruto-kun! Get back!" Hinata shouted. She saw what was causing the rumbling. She saw it coming right at them.

The wall exploded violently, releasing a furious gushing stream from the hole. Not only did that wall explode, but the walls and ceilings in the layers above them all came crashing down.

Gamakichi quickly snatched Naruto and Hinata in his tongue and swallowed them whole. He dove deep down into the water to escape the avalanche.

"We're getting the hell out of this effed up zone!" the toad swore.

"No! You gotta take us back," Naruto protested. "We don't know what caused that explosion. It might be important."

"As you wish," Gamakichi shook his head mournfully. He swam up to the surface and spat the shinobi pair from his gut. Naruto and Hinata returned to be drenched in a shower of rain and mist. They looked up to see that the explosion had torn a hole all the way to the top of the zone, exposing them to the open sky.

"It's not raining because of the weather," Hinata noted. "It's the remnants of that huge suiton jutsu that created all this destruction."

"Where'd that huge explosion come from, anyway?" Naruto asked, but Hinata's attention was elsewhere.

"Is everyone else okay?" Naruto asked.

Hinata started to scan around, examining for any nearby signs of life.

"Naruto-kun, I hear something else coming."

Naruto bent his ear in Hinata's direction, trying to see if he could pick up whatever Hinata was hearing over the rushing waters when suddenly, he heard it, too.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Then they heard another noise.

"Get back here, fuzzball!"

Naruto looked up towards one of the busted holes in the wall where an orange fuzzball came flying, screaming all the way down until it plopped right on top of Naruto's head.

"Tails?"

"Look out! It's a crazy shark guy with a sword!" Tails exclaimed as he clung to Naruto's head for dear life.

Soon after said crazy shark guy with a sword came tumbling down a waterfall and splashed into the floor at Naruto's feet.

"This must be the shark guy, but where's his sword?" Naruto asked.

"Up there!" Tails shouted and leapt off Naruto's head. A dark shadow cast itself above Naruto as the massive cleaver came hurtling down and crashed on top of Naruto's head.

"Get your filthy hands off my sword, punk!" Suigetsu snarled as he snatched the sword's handle. "I've got to finish this job and decapitate that demon kitsune's head.

When his vision cleared and he got back up, Naruto instantly recognized the late Zabuza's sword in the white haired stranger's hand.

"Isn't that Zabuza's sword? How come you have it? And why are you trying to chop off Tails' head with it?" Naruto asked as he nursed the large bump on his head while suspiciously eyeing the swordsman. Although he just met the guy, Naruto got a pretty good idea of what kind of person this swordsman was, just by looking at the way he bared his teeth.

"Too many questions at once, kid," Suigetsu said wearily. "I just got this thing back after that jutsu screwed me over. Orochimaru's gonna go apeshit when he sees what happened to his zone. And I still have to kill—Hey, I recognize you," Suigetsu paused so that he could meet Naruto eye to eye. "Yeah! You're the Kyuubi vessel and you're also Sasuke's old buddy, right?" he sent the tip of the sword to rest gently right on top of Naruto's nose. "I've been looking forward to finally fight you."

"You'd better get back, Tails," Naruto said, not taking his eyes off Suigetsu. "Go hide with Gamakichi. From here on, me and Hinata can fight this guy. You up for that, Hinata?"

Suigetsu didn't even notice the white eyed girl until he picked up the faint crackling of chakra emanating form her hands. Even though he knew how dangerous Hyuuga nins were, this girl's face appeared far too sot and innocent to be taken seriously. Naruto, on the other hand, was a name frequently mentioned in Orochimaru's base.

"I have to admit, I'm a bit low on chakra at the moment, so I'm gonna take you as seriously as I can, even thought you're probably just some stupid gaki."

"**Rasengan!"** Without preamble Naruto instantly produced a swirling Rasengan ball in his hand. But instead of attacking head on, he thrust into the water, creating a whirlpool that span across the chamber.

Suigetsu lost his balance and fell backwards into the rushing whirlpool. He stabbed the great sword into the churning rapids, using it to anchor himself.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto!" he declared loudly over the rushing sounds of the whirlpool. "Not 'stupid gaki.' Remember that!"

"You're crazy, man," Suigetsu replied with a beaming smile. "I like that."

The white haired swordsman said no more. But his smile spoke volumes. With a raging killing intent coming from each sharpened fang, Suigetsu charged across the spinning vortex.

Naruto jumped back out of the sword's range and pulled a spear out of the wall. He held the weapon in an offensive stance, the pointed tip aimed against Suigetsu.

Hinata activated her Byakagun and her eyes lit up with the white fury of her clan. Even from afar, Suigetsu sensed the blue flames of chakra rising from her body, prepared to deliver the stinging touch of the Jyuuken style.

Suigetsu smiled again.

"Kisame's gonna be so mad when he finds out that I killed you. He'll have to live with it, though."

From above, they formed three points of a triangle. The three fighters stood, swirling along the whirlpools' spiral, but perfectly balanced, their weapons drawn and ready.

Suigetsu with his giant sword. Naruto with a spear. Hinata with her open hands, blazing with chakra.

"I'm going first," Naruto shouted. "Back me up!"

With both hands on the hilt of his sword, Suigetsu twisted in midair and swung the sword in a deadly jab. Naruto surged forward and thrust his spear. Sparks flew as the metal grated together. Suigetsu pulled back for another swing, hoping to bisect the blonde across the waist. Naruto ducked clear of the sword's arc, but just barely. As big as that sword was, it moved fast. Suigetsu kept his word that he was fighting seriously and he was not a weak swordsman at all. No, Zabuza's sword could never be wielded by normal shinobi.

Naruto ducked and dodged and circled with perfect rhythm and his attacks with his spear were swift and unreadable, swiftly piercing through Suigetsu's defenses. The spear flashed in his hands like a bolt of lightning, threatening to strike past Suigetsu's sword and run him through. The mist nin smirked at the thought. Just let him try.

In the heat of the battle, Suigetsu left no time for Naruto to start sending in the Kage Bunshins. If he tried to form the seals, his hands would've been chopped off instantly. Naruto knew he would have to do this alone until he could create some distance. Since that was taking too long, he opted to finish this himself. Leaping above another powerful swing from Kubikiri Houchi, Naruto lunged downward for Suigetsu's opening.

Suigetsu swiveled out of the spears path just in time as the sharp tip cut off a few locks of his hair. "You're not used to fighting as only one guy, are ya?" Suigetsu asked. "That'll cost you."

"All the more reason to finish you now!"

Neither prepared to hesitate, they both shot forward simultaneously, clashing again violently with sparks flying through the air.

Tails watched the two of them as they weaved through intricate swings. He could still summon another gun, but he wasn't the kind of shot where he could do it without hitting Naruto.

As Naruto continued to thrust, Suigetsu whirled back, switching to fight with the sword one handed. With his now free hand, the swordsman gathered chakra into his hand and instantly created a sword made of pure water, Holding Kubikiri horizontally to block the spear, he slashed with his water blade, slicing Naruto's spear in two.

Naruto pushed back just in time before he was cut to ribbons with both swords.

"That's something Sasuke taught me," Suigetsu smirked. He started to get the idea that just mentioning that name made Naruto go wild.

And Naruto was ready to go wild as he tossed the broken weapon away as he faced the doubly armed swordsman. It was time to see what a Rasengan applied directly to the face could do.

"Better stop smiling with those freaky teeth of yours, cuz my Rasengan will knock them loose!" Naruto snarled with a new ball of energy already swirling in his palm.

Suigetsu sighed. "You weren't listening, dumbass."

Naruto ignored him and continuing to race across the whirlpool. Rushing in even faster, Naruto became a blur of orange and black. While his teeth didn't have quite the same effect, Naruto wore his own smirk as he envisioned the Rasengan cracking open Suigetsu's jaw and scattering his shark teeth everywhere.

Suigetsu sneered at the upcoming Rasengan. He liked his teeth right where they were. They were a sign of pride in the ruthless Hidden Village of Mist. To those who had them, they were a symbol of a master craftsman in the art of swordsmanship and murder.

And so Suigetsu had his own plan for what would become of his teeth. And when he saw that blue spinning orb come within an inch of his face, he strained his neck out of the way at the last second. As the Rasengan rushed past his face, Suigetsu bared his fangs and sank his teeth into Naruto's hand.

For a second, Naruto could only stare in shock. Then he pulled his blood soaked fist out of the guy's bite and howled in pain. Upon losing control, the Rasengan dissipated into nothingness.

He bit him! This guy was a biter. And he wouldn't let go. Suigetsu's murderous grin was now complimented by the blood that trickled between his teeth.

"It's easy to be a cold blooded killer when no one can make you bleed your own blood. For somebody good like you, I might just chop off your arm and leave the rest of you to die another day. Sorry, but Orochimaru won't give me a reward unless I kill you, meaning that dumb head of yours is gonna have to come off now."

There was a sharp burst of chakra as Hinata jumped in the way and struck against the side of the blade with her bare hand. With insanely fast reflexes, Hinata shoved her arm through hollow point in the greatsword and struck Suigetsu's other sword arm. A quick jolt of Hyuuga chakra dispelled the water blade.

"Well now, isn't this interesting?" Suigetsu's voice was cold and mocking. "You're really good. You're element isn't water also by any chance, is it?"

"Yay, Hinata!" Naruto cheered. "Don't be afraid of that guy's sword! You can beat him!"

Hinata's veiny white eyes hardened against Suigetsu's sharky grin. In an intense burst of speed, she flew in with a barrage of strikes. Bright flares of blue chakra bounced off the sword as Suigetsu blocked those deadly Hyuuga hands. To parry against Zabuza's legendary cleaver was definitely a feat. No one had ever done that before in the sword's long bloody history and it surprised the mist nin every time Hinata struck. As they continued to swirl across the whirlpool trading blows, Suigetsu frowned as he realized that Hinata was coming in closer. The intense bursts of chakra that flashed form her hands were so bright that his eyes started to lose focus. Everything started to turn white and blurry.

"How much longer do you think you can block my sword bare handed? You're not gonna last much longer."

"As long as I have to," Hinata huffed. "I'll help Naruto-kun no matter what."

"Try helping yourself and look at your hands," Suigetsu retorted. "They're bleeding!"

Hinata flipped back to gain some distance and lifted up her hands. Every inch of her fingers and palms were covered in throbbing purple bruises and they were drenched in a continuous flow of blood. This whole time, Hinata's hands were so numbed in the fight that she didn't notice it a thing. She regarded her for just a moment, then she snapped back and went back into her fighting stance.

"You can't fight anymore. You've gotten way too weak," Suigetsu said. He wasn't smirking anymore.

"Neither can you," Hinata retorted. "You're almost completely out of chakra."

"Stop this…please?"

"Hinata looks like she's in trouble," Naruto told himself. "This is my last chance to get him for sure!"

Once again, a new Rasengan swirled in Naruto's good hand and the chamber was flooded with another aura of blue light. With Suigetsu locked in combat with Hinata, there would be no avoiding a Rasengan to the head this time. And if he did evade it, Naruto was still going to beat this guy if he had to smash apart this whole dungeon stone by stone.

Still with his sword battling against Hinata's impenetrable defense, Suigetsu eyes glanced up to see Naruto coming in with that annoying swirling chakra ball. He turned back to face Hinata, who continued to put all her strength to repelling his sword.

That's when Suigetsu made his next move.

"Screw this," Suigetsu said as lowered his sword down. "I quit."

"WHAT?!"

Having to discharge the Rasengan and break his charge threw Naruto badly off balance and he came tumbling past Suigetsu and falling flat into the water. Hinata likewise plugged up her flow of chakra. The pressure on the room from all the energy clamed down and the whirlpool finally slowed until the waters resumed their natural state.

Hinata quickly rushed towards Naruto and helped him out of the water. Naruto faced Suigetsu and gave him a look that suggested he was the craziest person in the world. He already thought that when he bt him, but now Naruto was sure that this guy totally lost it. He was a few noodles short a ramen bowl.

"I said I quit. I don't want to fight you anymore," Suigetsu shrugged. "Simple as that."

"The hell? What kind of idiot changes his mind at the last minute like that?"

Suigetsu lazily yawned and leaned his back against the wall. "Sorry, but I just realized how incredibly lame this is. I don't want to play this silly game anymore."

Tails held a finger on his shotgun, just in case. Hinata looked speechless. Naruto quirked an eyebrow.

"Is this some kind of trick?"

"No trick," Suigetsu insisted. Hinata saw that his icy eyes were serious. "Listen, it took me a few minutes to realize this, but I don't want to kill guys like you. Now that I own this legendary sword, I'm on my way to bcoming the greatest of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. When the legendary name of Hozuki Suigetsu goes down in history, people will say that the first victims to die by his blade were a little fur ball, a sweet looking girl, and a moron. Who would be proud of that?"

"I don't get what you're talking about," Naruto gave him what Suigetsu saw as an idiotic stare. "You've made no sense at all since we met."

"It's really simple, baka," Suigetsu grabbed Naruto's head between his hands and craned it towards Hinata. "Does this like the face of a girl I'd want to cut in half and drench my swrod in her blood? Hell, even the sword says it doesn't want to do that."

"Your sword talks to you now?" Naruto asked.

"Don't you know any of the history of Kirigakure? Zabuza was known as the Devil of the Mist, but he wasn't some psycho killer. He was an honorable swordsman who had his own code of mercy. Like when he showed mercy to his closest ally, Haku. Zabuza's spirit still resides in this sword and I've spent enough time with it to hear its voice.

"Ano, Suigetsu-kun," Hinata piped up. "If you don't want to fight us, then who do you want?"

"I need to go take my sword up against some real swordsmen, like Kisame or Orochimaru. It's was a stupid idea to hunt down this poor innocent fox," he went on. "Sure he's a worthy opponent and Orochimaru may have given me an order, but then again, I'm not the type to follow Orochi's orders, anyway and I don't like to be cruel to animals. I'm not that bloodthirsty."

"The hell you talking about? You almost bit off my hand!" Naruto pointed to his blood soaked hand filled with some noticeable teeth marks.

"Let me look at it, Naruto-kun," Hinata offered. "Maybe it's not so bad."

"In retrospect, I could've chopped your arm off instead," Suigetsu muttered.

Convinced that the situation was diffused, Tails hurried up to face the swordsman. "So does a big sword like that have a missile launcher built inside there or something?"

"Don't be ridiculous! Who would have something like that hiding in their sword?"

"For a sword that large, I could probably build one in there," Tails said.

"…We should talk," was all Suigetsu could say. And indeed, the two did step away to further discuss the engineering possibilities within really really big swords, leaving Hinata alone to tend to Naruto.

"What total bullcrap!" Naruto complained wile Hinata started bandaging up Naruto's hand. "I was expecting the second coming of Zabuza. Not…Shikamaru with a big sword."

"Ano, I'm just happy that we were able to end this without anybody getting too badly hurt," Hinata said, looking into Naruto's eyes with a soft smile.

"Yeah…me too, Hinata," Naruto smiled back, but he dropped the smile when he noticed Hinata's hands.

"Hinata," Naruto looked down in surprise, "both your hands are bleeding. You should've taken care of yourself first!"

"No, Naruto-kun. They don't hurt me and I wanted to make you feel better," she explained.

Naruto gently reached for her hands and looked at them. He had zero skill as a medic nin, but every shinobi who fought enough knew what to make of some injuries.

"I think you broke some bones," Naruto said carefully, trying not to scare her or anything. "It's not surprising, though. You fought like a beast!"

"Th-thank you, Naruto-kun," she said weakly just before passing out. Naruto grabbed her in his arms, keeping her from sinking into the water.

"She gave it her all and used up a ton of chakra to fight," Naruto saw. Gazing at Hinata lying unconscious wit her head resting in his lap and no Sakura-chan in sight, he decided the first thing to do was to tend to those hans himself.

"Nuts," Naruto stared uncomfortably at the roll of bandages and Hinata's first-aid kit. "I don't know how to do this healing stuff at all, but I guess I have to."

Tails and Suigetsu were still hanging around discussing swords and Naruto didn't think they'd be much help so he got to work on Hinata's hands. Maybe they could later find Sonic and use some more of those chaos powers on her again. Suddenly, he remembered that ointment that Hinata gave him a long time ago when he fought Kiba in the Chuunin exams. He came out of that match with deep gashes on his arms. Blood was gushing out in spurts, the way he remembered. Hinata's cream worked really well when the fight was over. He remembered how she handed it to him like it was some secret forbidden healing elixir, so it must've been powerful stuff. After he found the exact same looking jar, he applied the goo liberally to her hands and then covered them in bandages.

"That should do it," Naruto breathed easily. He looked at his handiwork and saw that Hinata looked pretty relaxed as she slept against his chest. "I guess it wasn't as bad as thought."

"Zuzu, I think we covered everything important here," black Zetsu said. "Let's check out Orochimaru."

"Blech! Every time I see that guy he does something gross and disgusting. What a complete sicko," the white side groaned.

"I know, but if we don't go, we'll miss out on all the real fun."

* * *

Naruto sat and waited patiently while Hinata slept against his chest. They were going to continue on after Orochimaru and he wanted her to be at her strongest. He knew that Hinata wasn't the type to turn back or give up, but he also wanted her to be strong enough to kick as much ass as she could.

Tails and Suigetsu continued to talk about ninjutsu and the powerful weapons that could be created with them. Tails still felt a little awkward hanging out with the guy that tried to kill him and Sonic recently, but he was so quick to make friends that those little details faded quickly into the background. "Come to think of it, this kind of thing happens a lot," Tails considered. "It happened first with Knuckles. It also happened with Shadow…and it happened with Shadow again. Then there was the Babylon Rogues, Silver, probably a bunch of other people. Might as well add Suigetsu to the list."

Time passed and the clouds rolled across the sky. The sun soon started to creep out of the clouds, lighting up the gloomy Labyrinth with warm sunlight and sparkling waters. The rays shone over Hinata's face, stirring her from her sleep

"Naruto-kun…" Hinata whispered as she slowly opened her eyes. The first thing she saw were Naruto's big blue eyes up close and his bright smile.

"Wow, Hinata. That was a quick recovery," Naruto grinned.

Hinata's pale lavender eyes glanced over to her hands. "Did you do this…Naruto-kun?"

"Yup," his grin grew wider. "It wasn't as hard as I thought. I bet you could still fight with those hands. Maybe you should kick a little more, though."

"Arigatou, Naruto-kun, I feel a lot better now." Feeling her chakra returning, Hinata stood up tall and announced with a great deal of strength in her voice. "I want to continue onward and complete our mission."

"Yatta!" Naruto shouted joyfully and punched his bandaged fist in the air. "So are you ready to go with me to kick Orochimaru's scaly ass?"

Hinata's face flushed pink as she nodded. "Yes, Naruto-kun. Yes, I'm ready."

"So am I," Gamakichi declared. "But before we go on…" he held up the ceramic bottle before everyone and shouted loudly so they all could hear him. "We must all drink together as friends."

"Hey, is that the special sacred sake of Myouboku Mountain you mentioned?" Tails asked curiously.

"Don't give him any!" Naruto yelled.

"Quit your belly aching, Naruto," Suigetsu said as he grabbed for the toad's sake jar and took a swig. Naruto grimaced as sake poured messily through his fangs.

"I don't want to see what you look like drunk, either!"

"Oh, I think I'll be staying plenty sober today," Suigetsu said. "We need our minds to stay strong for Orochimaru. If you want to know the real deal, I've been waiting for the right time to betray the snake bastard. Now's as good a time as any and you guys might be able to give me a hand."

Go with you," Naruto snorted into the air. "Forget it. It's gotta be a trick. Go back to your Mist village with your dumb sword. We'll take care of this by ourselves."

"If you don't trust me, you can hold onto my sword," Suigetsu said tossing the sword at Naruto who barely caught it without falling over. "I hope you know how to use it."

"I think we should trust Suigetsu-kun," Hinata said. "Even with Byakagun. I don't think we can find Orochimaru by ourselves. We'll need his help."

Naruto considered the matter, but finally decided to side with Hinata. She had good insight for these kinds of things.

"Smart decision," Suigetsu crossed his arms and nodded. "After all, I'm the only one who knows the location of Orochimaru's secret lair."

* * *

"Here we are, mate. Orochimaru's secret lair dead ahead."

Sonic couldn't be more happy to have finally made it to Orochimaru's lair. Not just because he listened to the raccoon pirate shout the word "adventure" over a hundred times, but because he was now sailing towards dozens and dozens of golden rings spinning in midair.

"Wow! Look at all this treasure!" Marine exclaimed.

Sonic started slowly, jumping for the lowest rings, but as he felt the life giving energy seep into his pores, his breathing got a little easier, his feet moved a little faster, and soon enough, he was zipping around the place faster than Marine's eyes could follow. All the rings absorbed themselves into the hedgehog's body until all that was left was a few golden sparks. When the last spark faded, Sonic flickered back onto the boat. As strong as he now felt, he wasn't ready to take a dunk just yet.

"I'm ready now, Marine. Orochimaru's chambers are right behind that stone door?" he pointed with his thumb to a pair of stone doors, polished white and engraved with the images of snakes, coiling around each other.

"Yup, that's the place. Have a nice time," she started to prepare the boat to sail back.

"Hey, aren't you coming with me?"

"Sorry, mate. Dead men tell no tales, but I heard some deadly tales about this Orochimaru and there are things that lie in the murky depths that a pirate should never mess with. I just wanted to see if I could get here, that's all."

Okay," Sonic leaned his leg on the boat and made sure his shoes were buckled nice and tight. "I'm doing this by myself, then."

"Here," the raccoon girl tossed him a sheathed pirate's sword. "You can at least take my cutlass."

"Keep it, Marine. I don't need a cutlass," Sonic grinned and motioned with his thumb to his spine. "I am the cutlass."

"Take it," insisted the raccoon girl. "It's a sword I got from a cursed treasure horde guarded by a bunch of ghost pirates. It's a lucky magic sword."

"If it's from a cursed treasure, how could it be lucky?"

"I had it on me when I found you, didn't I?"

"Works for me," Sonic shrugged and strapped the sword to his side.

"Well good luck, mate. I hope you stay alive so we can sail together freely out onto the open seas for some real adventure. Maybe someday we will meet again on the Grand Line. I can tell you have the makings of a great pirate in you!"

"I'm surrounded by ninjas everywhere so I guess at least one of us should be a pirate," Sonic grinned.

After they waved their goodbyes, Sonic waited until Marine had sailed out of sight and then he approached the White Snake's entrance.

On the other side of that very door, Kabuto came running up to Orochimaru's side with an urgent look in his face.

"Suigetsu has betrayed you, Orochimaru-sama. The jinchuurikis are alive and they are approaching," Kabuto reported.

"Let them come," the snake master replied casually. "I have made arrangements for just such a scenario."

It was at that moment that Orochimaru and Kabuto heard what sounded like a buzz saw slicing through solid rock. The door crumbled to pieces and Sonic the Hedgehog made his entrance and was met with the last thing he wanted to see—A very smug looking Orochimaru…in a hot tub.

"It appears that our little blue friend has overcome the trials of the Labyrinth Zone and has at last arrived," the snake man laughed.

"Hey, Oro. Good to see you too," Sonic grinned. "The Harry Potter people called. They're looking for a new Voldemort."

Orochimaru shook his head disdainfully. "Still spouting such utter nonsense. Clearly, you know who you are dealing with. I, on the other hand, know everything about you, Olgilvie Maurice Hedgehog."

Sonic visibly shuddered when he heard the mention of his full name. It sounded even worse the way it came out, almost slithered out of the snake sannin's mouth.

"I don't care to know anything about who you are, Oro. I know you think that you're the biggest badass on Mobius, but to me, you're nothing but a speed bump."

"How dare you speak that way to Orochimaru-sama!" Kabuto yelled. "It's about time you learned some respect!"

"Enough, Kabuto," Orochimaru said, suppressing a chuckle. He rather enjoyed seeing get Kabuto so riled up for his sake. Seeing that kind of mindless devotion was so heartwarming. It could turn even a highly intelligent ninja like Kabuto into a driveling idiot. Hearing the passionate cries of his followers was like music to his ears. That's why the sound ninjas wore forehead protectors with the symbols of musical notes. That's why he named his realm the Sound village. "Please forgive Kabuto, but he had a point. I didn't allow you into my presence so that we could trade petty insults. I want you to relinquish those chaos emeralds to me now. Do so and I will spare you and the lives of your friends."

Sonic crossed his arms and grinned again. "If I had a chilidog for every time someone said that to me, do you know how fat I would be? Try combining Chouji, Big the Cat, and Robbutnik all into one."

Orochimaru hissed out a low sigh. "A pity, really. We didn't have to do this the hard way. Impudent as you are, I'd much rather have you serve me as one of my elite soldiers. I am the leader of the Sound village, you understand. You, Sonic, would fit in so nicely with my sound theme."

"And what happens then? You're gonna give me a cursed seal and turn me into a werewolf?"

Orochimaru's smirk widened as if to say, "That's not a bad idea."

"Sonic, all I want is I fulfill the original purpose that these chaos emeralds were intended," the sannin tried to explain. "So I will ask you nicely once. And remember, the fate of both our worlds lies in this request. I wish that you give me those emeralds."

"Christmas is a long ways away, Oro, and you've been a naughty snake boy. Settle for seven lumps of coal instead."

"That's enough!" Kabuto shouted. A glowing blade of chakra swarmed surrounded his hand. "You will not address Orochimaru-sama like that. I will cut out your tongue."

Kabuto threw himself into Sonic's path, launching a volley of shuriken. The ninja stars weren't even a distraction as the hedgehog blurred into motion and surged like a blue lightning bolt. The blue blur shredded past them and onwards into Kabuto. The medic nin prepared his lethal chakra scalpel, ready to kill. The blue and purple blurs met and stopped with a loud crack.

Sonic stood in front of Kabuto, the back of his gloved fist planted firmly into the middle of Kabuto's face. A red trail of blood ran down Kabuto's nose over Sonic's white glove. The silver haired boy collapsed into a heap by the edge of the pool, his glasses and nose completely shattered. Orochimaru gave an impressed nod when he saw the fist marks imprinted firmly in the boy's face.

Orochimaru was even more impressed when he noticed Sonic's green eyes had taken a lighter, actually glowing teal hue.

"It's time like these I feel like I should take a few lessons from Shadow," Sonic flashed a grin very different from the usual trademark cocky grin. He turned to Orochimaru, holding up his blood soaked hand. A growing golden aura that shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow slowly started to seep from his skin. It didn't take over his blue fur yet, but the beginning was there.

"Yesssss…It begins. Soon…very soon. That power will be mine! Mine!"

A long snake tongue protruded from the sannin's mouth as he licked the air in anticipation. A mad gleam shined in his amber eyes. At last the time had come. And this time, no meddlesome shinobi or demons would interfere.

"OROCHIMARU!"

An annoyingly loud voice echoed the snake sannin's name across the vast chamber. He turned away from Sonic to see several peculiar looking shadows stepping through a cloud of mist by the entrance—The Kyuubi brat, the Hyuuga princess, the Toad Boss's son, the traitorous mist swordsman, and the two tailed demon kitsune.

"Hey, Sonic!" Tails' eyes were as wide and happy as ever. "I knew you were still alive. I was betting we'd find you here!"

"Tails," Sonic smiled to see his Tails too, but he wasn't too happy about that mist swordsman standing right behind them. "What are you doing with 'Jaws' over there?"

"Long story, Sonic. Suigetsu's cool now. We fought him, but he surrendered."

"I did not surrender," Suigetsu muttered and crossed his arms indignantly.

"And then he gave us his sword," Tails said as he grabbed the gigantic sword's handle in his small hands and struck a cool samurai pose. "Whaddya think? Isn't it the coolest?"

Sonic had to admit it was very cool seeing Tails pose with a sword three times his size, that is, until his arms and legs jiggled straining to uphold the heavy blade. Tails let out a squeak when the seven foot long blade fell from his grip, squishing him underneath it.

"Ku ku ku," Orochimaru snickered. "I see that they sent a group of clowns to defeat me, not real ninjas. It reminds me of my training days with Jiraiya."

"The only clown here is you, Oro," Naruto snapped while he grabbed Kubikiri Houchi. After helping Tails to his feet, Naruto used all his strength to point the blade at the hated snake sannin.

"To hold that big zanbatou at me like that…you've gotten stronger, Naruto-kun. Even without the Kyuubi. Jiraiya has indeed taught you well."

"Hinata, radio for Kakashi-sensei and the others," Naruto ordered. "Tell them we've got Orochimaru cornered."

"Hai," Hinata nodded.

"Naruto, say nothing more to this shithead," Suigetsu growled. "You've got a legendary sword in your hands. Let the blade do its job."

Naruto didn't look back, but if he did, Suigetsu would've seen an approving smile. He was starting to like this mist guy a bit. Enough to take his advice and attack with the zanbatou.

Faster than Naruto could slide across the pool and swing the big sword, Orochimaru already puked out the Kusunagi sword from his bowels. With one flick of the wrist, he parried away the sword with his own slime drenched katana.

"Sonic, we should help him," Tails insisted, pulling on his arm.

"Chill Tails," Sonic said. "This is one of those things Naruto needs to handle alone."

"Don't struggle so much, Naruto-kun. I have no intention of fighting you," the snake man declared. "In fact, I meant to reward you for making it this far."

"Screw that!" Naruto shouted, pushing harder. "You're so full of crap, it's worse than that time I drank that expired milk. Maybe it was you that planted it in my fridge in the first place!"

"What is it that you want?" Orochimaru hissed as the blades scraped against each other. "Did you come just to kill me, brat? That must be the only reason. I have nothing that you want. Not anymore."

"You drove Sasuke to his death!"

"Don't say such things to me, Naruto-kun. Nobody regrets Sasuke-kun's passing as much as I."

"Liar! You never gave a damn about him!"

"Neither did you," Orochimaru spoke slowly, waiting to see those words sink into Naruto's heart. He saw the effect it had on Naruto when he slowly lowered his sword. "If you really cared about your bonds with Sasuke, you would have supported him in his quest for vengeance, but you didn't. I did that. That's why he was so intent in helping me gather the chaos emeralds. With all seven, he could have easily killed Itachi. We could have put an end to the entire Akatsuki organization for you. And with the emeralds, I could easily surpass the Sharingan's powers. I wouldn't have needed Sasuke's body at all. And if I won, I would have gladly returned Sasuke-kun to you. But it's too late for that now."

Orochimaru gave a hard swing with his katana that pushed Naruto back across the pool, back onto the stone floor, and out of his face.

"But then again, perhaps it's not too late after all," Orochimaru said in a gleefully evil tone. "You can come out now…Sasuke."

"Sasuke?"

Suddenly, the earth below Naruto started to crack open. A skeletal hand clawed its way out of the stone floor and latched onto Naruto's leg. Its thin bone white fingers dug in so hard that they nearly reached the bone.

"What the hell is this?" Naruto cried.

Naruto got his answer when the earth quaked open violently and exploded. A figure emerged forth that carried with it the foul stench of burned rotten flesh that hung loosely over the bones. Only after fighting off the urge to hurl did he notice the distinct Uchiha clothing the figure wore. They were reduced to burned tatters, but the Uchiha crest was there on its back. The Kusunagi sword was there on its side. And a pair of Sharingan eyeballs stared straight at him from its gaunt eye sockets.

"…Sasuke?" Naruto stared at his lost teammate, now dead, now alive again.

No recognizable sounds passed through Sasuke's decayed teeth. Just an unholy moan that carried with it the rot of the grave.

As soon as the thing turned its gaze towards Tails, the young fox's fur stood on end as he staggered back.

"ZOMBIE SASUKE!" the kit cried out in horror at the undead thing before him.

"Sasuke just can't seem to let go of his need for revenge. Not even death can stop him. Now, not only does he want to kill Itachi, but you too, Naruto. And then of course, how could he forget the one who really killed him…"

Electricity gathered around his ghoulish body until it surrounded him completely. Even though the name was unspoken, Naruto recognized the Chidori Nagashi technique in action as he watched the lightning channel through Sasuke's body, setting his bones aglow with a pale blue light.

With a speed that belied his withered body, Sasuke snatched a cold clawed hand around Naruto's neck. White hot energy surged into his body and blasted him across the room. With his other hand, he held the Sword of Kusunagi. Sheathing the blade in electricity, he aimed the sword to declare vengeance against his killer.

**To Be Continued…**

**A/N: That line about Sonic turning into a werewolf was said in reference to this new game Sonic Unleashed where Sonic turns into a werewolf, in case you were wondering. Looks interesting. Anyway, an important note: some characters in the manga have not yet fought and revealed all or any of their abilities. In that case, I simply guessed and made up what they can do. I'm very excited for what I'm gonna write next chapter and I'll get to work pounding the next chapter. It'll be up soon. Just wait and see.**

**Next Chapter: The Undead**


	15. Dark Side of the Rainbow

**The Kitsune in the Leaves**

**Another monster of chapter with a lot of monsters in it. Get ready!**

**Rikku92: A sidescroller should be fun. I'm with you on bringing back old zones and stuff from back in the day. They were the best! Now if they make a Tails-centric game I'll be really happy!**

**: Shadow's definitely a fave of mine. I love writing him. I was gonna have Shadow in this chapter, but it got too long. He appears for about one paragraph. XD He'll be around a lot in the next chapters!**

**Dragon Man 180: Sasuke appeared to be the best candidate for zombiefication. Hmm…Amy with a Zanpato. That gave me some ideas. She is missing her hammer, after all. Must be time for an upgrade.**

**TheShamanMaster: Thanks! Marine is awesome. I'm glad you liked all the twists. There's a lot more on the way!**

**captain deoxys: Shadow the Hedgehog with Sharingan…It does sound amazing. I've thought of the idea before since he's so much like Sasuke. I'll see about that**

**Lycropath: It's definitely the teeth that make Suigetsu awesome. That and pissing off Karin. Naruto might not need Totosai to fix his sword. Tails might be able to fix it. About Hidan and Kakuzu, it's true, I'm messing around with the time line a bit. This also means that Asuma is still alive. By the way, that doodle you drew with Tails eating Sasuke's bonesawesome!**

**Asher Tye: Suigetsu the water swordsman appears late in the manga, but he's a very interesting character. When Rouge says she's a ninja, she means more in the sense of the sneaking around silently, hiding in the shadows, somebody just poisoned my tea type of ninja. Labyrinth Zone was always a crazy zone. I think the countdown before Sonic drowns is supposed to be numbered as one of the scariest moments in video game history. The Akatsuki Leader is very tough and his secret identity is one of the biggest mysteries in the series. I'm building up to an eventual confrontation between him and Tails. And later on, Tails will gonna discover a lot more about the Kyuubi.**

**Psionicnemesis: I know what you mean.I feel the same way about Hidan and Kakuzu. I plan to do their fights differently.**

**Blue Mage Quartet: Heh, yeah, this fic is really really big, so there's room for everyone to show up. Marine is a very fun character with lots of potential and Australian accents are cool. I'm surprised there's no TailsxMarine fics or anything popping up. I should look up some more about Aussie talk. Cream hasn't popped up yet, but expect her to show up in a couple more chapters. I know how frustrating the writer's block can be. For me, it helps to read a lot.**

**star's dream: Happy to hear everything's running smoothly. Thanks a lot for the nice review. Glad you like it!**

**oOo-Kaede Higuchi-oOo: Sonic knows just what to say to the snake man, doesn't he?**

**Angelus-alvus: Thanks. Glad to hear it. ;)**

**pikachu15evee: Hehe, yeah. Lee can be pretty damn creepy sometimes.**

**Aura Chocobo: You could imagine the chaos that would ensue if Marine fought with Luffy. XD I actually did plan to have Kenpachi make an appearance much later. He's one of my favorite characters. There'll be lots more Tobi on the way doing the crazy stuff he does. Thanks for another wonderful mammoth review!**

**hazlov2004: Thanks so much!**

**kilatails: Is it really Sasuke? The answer is in this chapter. Read and see.**

**Zohaku: Good to see a real Sasuke fan. A lot of people hate his guts. I don't want to spoil much, but Sasuke does have an important role. It looks like he's become a real villain in the manga. What will become of him in this fic, you'll need to see to find out.**

**Ashley Barton: Thanks a lot. You're right that there's a good amount of questionable content here, but nobody seems to mind, so I guess it's all right.**

**Green Raccoon: You're doing great with your story, updating much faster than me, anyways. I really want to do something about that.**

**TC chan: I kinda really liked evil Itachi. I'm gonna incorporate that stuff from the manga in, but it will be different. Ninjutsu training time for Tails is coming up soon. Oh, I saw the Naruto cosplay on DA. Looks like it came out great!**

**KageModelZX: Thanks a lot for that enthusiastic review! Evil moogles are after me again? Better update sooner, heheh.**

**Shadlay: Thanks. :D**

**Kage Bushin no Jutsu: You'll get to see what's next. Come and take a look.**

**Kitsune-SuperFox: A lot of weird things happen on this story. Tails will still be kicking major ass.**

**Tyler the Kitsune: I'm glad you like to see Tails as the big hero. Stories like that are often my favorite Sonic fics. Thanks for reviewing and beware the evil ZOMBIE SASUKE!**

**Kitty the Akatsuki Lover: The Zombie Sasuke seen did appear pretty funny in my head. Yeah, Kabuto does make a good Harry Potter. Gonna have to remember that. I hope I get to see your fanart when you finish it. I love fanart! Thanks for drawing it and thanks for reviewing!**

**Morph: Zombie Sasuke is weird, eh? So I've been told. The reviews seem to say he's either weird or awesome. I thought it would be something Orochimaru would do. It is great having characters from all over the place showing up. The more the merrier, they say. As for the final showdown, I think it's still got a long way to go until then.**

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**Chapter XV: Dark Side of the Rainbow**

"**You have a big juicy brain there, Tails. Don't let Sasuke eat it."**

"So not helping now!" Tails yelled to the Kyuubi in his head.

"**Don't get your tails all caught up in a knot. I'm comin' to help. I won't let you become kitsune kabob just yet."**

In an instant, Zombie Sasuke's movements changed from that of a slow shambling corpse to the hard and fast kendo attack of a master samurai. Electricity surged around his sword and his bones as he swung at Tails for an instant death strike.

Tails flicked a pair of kunai in both hands and parried the sudden strike. Blades met in vicious swipe after swipe, their energies scattered around them. Tails' blue eyes turned red, as fierce and fiery as the killing rage that burned behind Sasuke's shriveled face.

Sasuke's head spun 180 degrees and breathed a barrage of fireballs, keeping Naruto, Hinata, Suigetsu, Gamakichi, and Sonic away from interfering.

Of them all, only Suigetsu rushed in close enough to engage Zombie Sasuke. He ducked from Suigetsu's swing and plunged the Kusunagi katana into his side. As the sword slipped into Suigetsu's abdomen, lightning lit up his entire body. The electricity conducted through the most nin's watery form, sending thousands of volts right through him until the lightning erupted from his eyes.

Through it all, Orochimaru leaned back in his tub and enjoyed the show. Sonic half expected him to be munching on a bag of popcorn. Or mice. Or cookies shaped like Sasuke. Or whatever the guy ate.

"Say goodbye to Tails-kun, Sonic," Orochimaru said. "Sasuke is a creature of vengeance. Even more so in death than in life. He will never stop until his killer lies dead before him."

"You make it sound like this is the end. Tails and me have been through worse scrapes. We're not dyin' here."

"Really? Then I don't need to tell you not to get electrocuted right near the water."

From across the room, Sasuke charged his skeletal palm full of lightning and slammed the ground, releasing a Chidori current running across the floor and surging directly into Sonic's body. The blast hurled the hedgehog back and into the air. Sonic felt paralyzed as his blue fur sizzled with electricity. He couldn't move as he headed straight for the water.

Sonic landed with a hard thud. Not something he expected from a pool of water, but then he wasn't complaining. Opening his eyes, he found himself caught in a giant hand made of wood. Following the movements of the hand's twisting tree trunk, Sonic found Yamato emerging from the wall.

"I take it you're happy that you didn't hit the water, Sonic?" Yamato asked.

"Ah, my old guinea pig has arrived," an amused smirk crossed the snake sannin's mouth. "That's quite annoying to have my old experiments come back to bite me."

"I'm going to do a lot more than annoy you," Yamato declared.** "Mokuton Hijutsu: Jukai Koutan!" (Forest Genesis)**

Small twigs started to sprout through the cracks growing rapidly bigger until the entire chamber exploded with giant trees running everywhere and covering everything, changing Orochimaru's chamber into a living forest.

Orochimaru was no longer amused when a whole bloody forest began to infest his lair. He leered at the offensive ninja above whose technique wouldn't have been possible were it not for Orochimaru's genetic manipulation.

"Hmmm…it's getting very crowded in here and I think I've had enough company for one day," Orochimaru lifted his hands up high and called forth all kinds of snakes to come slithering out of every nook and cranny from the ceiling to the floor. They swarmed around his naked body as he rose from the waters, melding with his flesh and morphing to clothe him with his usual combat robes and purple rope sash. "Farewell, my friends. Please give Kakashi my regards, Yamato-taichou."

With one last sinister smile, Orochimaru revealed a hidden back door and quickly slithered through the tunnel, vanishing from sight.

"Sonic, Kakashi and the others are on their way, but you're still the fastest. You have the best chance out of all of us to reach Orochimaru. You must stop him," Yamato ordered.

"But Tails—"

"If you destroy Orochimaru, you will destroy his jutsus," Yamato said. "Tails can take care of himself. I'll help him. We'll all help him. Just make sure you catch Orochimaru, or everything both you and Tails have fought for will be lost."

Sonic took one last glance towards Tails and watched his little brother trading blows against the zombie. Blue and red sparks flew whenever Tails' kunai scraped against Sasuke's steel.

"Go get 'em, big guy," Sonic whispered, not wanting to distract Tails. "I'll see ya soon." And with that, he raced down the dark corridor after the snake sannin.

Tails barely noticed Sonic making his exit. His eyes stayed fixed on Sasuke's maneuvers.

As fast as he could move, his trees could grow even faster and Yamato surged along the living forest heading towards Sasuke and Tails.

Sasuke's head spun 180 degrees to face Yamato and breathed a gout of flame that expanded throughout the chamber. Yamato's moukoutons exploded into cinders, filling the air with swirling bits of ash. Yamato stood at the very edge of the path of flames, Gamakichi jumped to his side.

"Can't you do anything, toad?" Yamato turned to Gamakichi for help.

"Unless you like eating crispy frog legs, I ain't going near them. There's enough nasty chakra brewing between them to give Ametarasu a run for its money. Maybe you should seal away that Kyuubi chakra."

"It's too dangerous at this point to seal Tails' chakra away. Maybe I should—" Yamato stopped. His words drifted away as something drew his attention to the upper canopy of trees in his own forest.

"What is it?" Gamakichi asked.

"There's something that demands my attention," Yamato said. Without another word, he sprang into the trees, heading towards the top where he saw a strange rustling amidst the leaves.

"I know you're watching us," Yamato shouted. "Show yourself!"

From the ceiling, a giant venus fly trap with a ghastly human head and wearing the cloud patterned Akatsuki cloak materialized revealed himself before Yamato.

"You've made me feel right at home in this jungle of yours, progeny of Shodai," chuckled the cloaked plant monster. No wonder you discovered me."

"You know who I am, so you must've been spying on us for a while," Yamato said. "You are Akatsuki's scout, are you not? There's a lot I need you to tell us."

"Do you honesty expect me to give away information so easily?"

"No, I knew you guys would be difficult," said Yamato. "But I was ready for that, too."

"**Shichuutou no Jutsu!" (Four Pillar Prison)**

The tree branches shook to life. They bent and twisted and surrounded Zetsu, encasing him on all sides in a thick wooden cage.

"What is this guy thinking?" each side of Zetsu asked the other. The plant nin's leafy mouth chomped down on the wooden bars and gnashed them into broken splinters.

"This is good. We don't get to fight so often," black Zetsu whispered.

"Especially with someone with such interesting jutsus," white Zetsu added.

Yamato leapt back and launched a volley of kunai at the Akatsuki nin. One lucky knife managed to embed itself deep into the venus fly trap. Bright green blood splurted from the wound.

"He hit us. How dare he? Let's eat him," black Zetsu growled.

"No. He could be more plant than meat. That's hardly the kind of snack to get so worked up over."

"One thing's for sure, though. He won't be able to help his kitsune friend."

* * *

As the battle between the woodland beings began above, the fight between the fox demon and the undead shinobi raged on below.

"**Tails, beware the creature's touch,"** Kyuubi warned. **"It is cursed."**

Tails sprang higher into the air, visibly pouring higher amounts of chakra into his kunai, he came down on Sasuke with a swift cross slash. Small glowing shards scattered everywhere as Kusunagi shattered to pieces in the zombie's hands.

"It shattered!" Tails exclaimed.

"**That wasn't the real sword of Kusunagi. It was an obvious fake."**

"What does that mean?" Tails asked.

"**Who cares? It means you have to finish him now. Send that Uchiha back to the grave where he belongs."**

Sasuke stopped and brought his hands up to his face. It looked as if his rotting brain was trying to register why the katana had left his hands. With a hollow grunt, the zombie snapped up. The Sharingan eyeballs appeared to be floating inside their sockets.

Sasuke lunged forth with an open arm and seized hold of the kit's throat in its clawed hand. A monstrous howl escaped the zombie's mouth as it pinned Tails to the tree trunk with such force that it cracked on impact. Blood dripped onto the ground from Tails' mouth. The grip was icy cold and hard as steel around his neck and nothing Tails did could make it budge. He barely managed a chocked cry as Sasuke tightened his grip. Tails kicked his little legs in he air as his protective shield of chakra was sucked away into Sasuke's body.

* * *

"Naruto-kun, please get up," Hinata pleaded and shook Naruto's prone form.

But Naruto didn't get up or answer her. His eyes were wide open, but he couldn't see Hinata or hear her voice. His mind and soul buried itself far away, drawn deep into Kyuubi's dark cell.

Naruto immediately realized why he was there. Naruto met Sasuke in the Kyuubi's cell. There, Sasuke was back looking alive and healthy with a struggling Tails caught in his grip in one hand and his katana in the other.

"Look at this, Naruto," Kyuubi growled. "Your pesky friend has invaded my cage again looking for more trouble. You should really do something about this."

A fiendish smile ran across Sasuke's lips. "So, are you still going to try to and save me, Naruto?"

"Sasuke, it's really you, isn't it? You're not dead after all."

"I came back to kill the Kyuubi," Sasuke replied, tightening his grip on Tails. "And then I will kill you."

"Do you remember when you were here for he first time? If you screw around with the Kyuubi, you're gonna regret it big time."

"I already paid my price for that," Sasuke replied. "I'm dead now, Naruto. There's no going back for me at all. I have only one last shot at revenge."

"You look alive enough to me. Just let Tails go already and we can—"

Sasuke drove his sword straight through Naruto's stomach. Naruto's speech was cut off by the gurgling off his own blood. The vicious stab sent him staggering backward into the bars of the cage. Sasuke stepped closer and bent down towards Naruto's face.

"I guess this means you're not going to be Hokage anymore. We can enjoy our bonds together in death, though" Sasuke said. His flesh then melted slowly off his bones, revealing his zombified form as he pushed the blade deeper into Naruto's gut all the way up to the hilt.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata's voice pierced from beyond the seal. Naruto blinked and found himself back. He frantically felt his stomach.

No stab wound. Just another Uchiha mind trick.

"Listen to me very carefully," Hinata said slowly. "I can see a very evil chakra coming from that monster. We have to stop it before it kills Tails-kun."

"Sasuke's…back from the dead…" Naruto gasped out as he painfully lurched to his feet. "He spoke to me."

"Naruto-kun. Take a good look at him," Hinata pointed to the revolting thing that focused its cursed eyes on killing Tails. "I'm sorry, but Sasuke's not coming back. It's too late for him."

"It's never too late!" he snapped. "I just have to try harder."

"But—"

"I'll do whatever it takes! There's a forbidden resurrection technique we could use. I could sacrifice my life to bring him back."

Hinata always liked seeing Naruto get so passionate, but this time wasn't like those other times. This time, he was just scary.

"Are you crazy? You can't do something like that!" her voice was chocked.

"You don't understand. You could never understand Sasuke's my best friend. He's my brother!" Tears started to run down from, his blue eyes. "I made a promise to bring him back even if I die trying!"

Hinata's hand flew as she let out everything she had with a Jyuuken slap across the face, knocking him down.

"Stop thinking that your life only belongs to Sasuke!"

Naruto sat on the ground silent and astonished. He felt the burning sting on his wet face.

"And stop being such a crybaby for once!" she yelled again. She realized right away how that didn't make any sense. Not because it wasn't true, but coming from her of all people? Especially since tears were flowing out of her eyes when she said it.

"Hinata…" Naruto sniffled, slowly and painfully lifting himself to his feet. Hinata forgot all about his leg injury and that made her feel worse. What kind of idiot strikes a wounded comrade? "I came all this way to this world just to get Sasuke back. What am I supposed to do now? "

"I think you came to this world for a very important purpose, Naruto-kun, but maybe it wasn't for Sasuke. Tails-kun needs your help now. Look at the important bond you have with him. Did you ever think that maybe you were meant to come here for Tails? What happens if you give up your life? Won't Kyuubi and Tails die, too?"

Naruto turned his head back once more to see Tails struggling against Sasuke.

"I know you're putting everything on the line for Sasuke-kun. I know he's your brother and you love him, but the only person that can save Sasuke now is himself. I know you can't go back on your words. That's your way of the ninja. It's mine too. I learned that from you," she brought her hand to his face again, but this time her touch was soft and gentle as a feather. She kept her hand on his cheek, letting his tears soak through her fingers. "You were the first person to ever acknowledge me. You inspired me to keep moving forward and to try my best. If your throw your life away, who's going to be there to help me get stronger? I need you. The village needs you to lead them to greatness. That's the kind of man I know you are!"

Naruto didn't defend himself because he couldn't. Hinata saw his face darken and she felt terrible.

"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. I didn't mean to hurt you, but I won't let you destroy yourself over this. And if you can't end this, then I will!"

Having said her piece, she turned away from Naruto, her hands open in her taijutsu stance. A glowing sapphire chakra poured through her bandaged hands and exploded from her entire body, gushing out of her like a fountain.

Seeing the obvious threat coming towards him, Sasuke gestured with a finger and released another stroke of lightning with a shockingly loud crackle. Hinata tried her best to create a Kaiten whirl like she saw her cousin Neji do so many times. The lightning bolt struck and the barrier burst. A flash of white hot light blinded her. Hinata sensed the static in the air and caught the blast in her own hands. At first, she managed to hold it in her hands, but the current grew intense and blew the chakra shield apart. Hinata flew backwards through a rain of sparks where she struck her head against the wall. She had the dizzying vision of Naruto running towards her screaming her name.

Naruto picked her up and brought her to a high perch in Yamato's forest. Somewhere up there, Yamato was duking it out with one of the Akatsuki, but it was impossible to see them through the dense jungle. He was sure Yamato could hold back that shinobi, but just to be safe, he set one clone to stand watch over here and then jumped down.

"I'm sorry…Hinata-chan."

* * *

As Tails continued to struggle, the red glow around him darkened and his canines grew sharper, more pronounced. He wrapped his tails around Sasuke's arm and squeezed as hard as he could until he heard the bones snapping under pressure. With one sharp twist of his tails, Sasuke's arm came off with a crack. Tails fell to the floor with the disembodied arm still hung around his neck.

"Holy Crap!" Tails cried as the arm continued to throttle his neck. With the other attached arm, the zombie focused a Chidori in his clawed hand and prepared to thrust.

"Hey, Sasuke!" somebody tapped him on the shoulder.

Naruto reared back and plowed the Rasengan straight into the zombie's face. His head exploded on impact, splattering the once clean walls with dead Sasuke chunks.

As Sasuke's headless body crumpled to the ground, the iron grip around Tails loosened and he finally managed to pry the bony fingers off his throat. Throwing the arm away in disgust, Tails collapsed his back against the base of the tree, dead from exhaustion.

"You all right there, cheeseball?" Naruto asked, smiling and smacking him on the back to help his coughing fit.

No…" Tails said in a chocked voice. "I feel so cold and tired…" Tails curled up into a shivering ball and leaned against Naruto's side, his tails wagging feebly.

"Yeah? Me too. Looks like Sasuke sucked out some of our chakra," Naruto ran a hand through Tails' fur. "But it looks like you didn't get cut up badly, so that's good."

Tails eyes went ridiculously wide. "Are we gonna be all right? We're not gonna turn into zombies too, are we?"

"I hope not. I don't wanna know what a Tails zombie is like."

Tails giggled and snuggled up closer to Naruto, trying to get as warm and comfortable as he could. Naruto felt his fur again. It was icy cold to the touch. So was his own skin. While Tails started to drift off into sleep, Naruto started bandaging up that nasty open wound on his leg. The spot where the zombie's claws grabbed him was badly lacerated, but the bone wasn't broken and the muscles and tendons weren't injured enough to make it useless.

"We'll get Sakura-chan to look at us," Naruto said. "She can heal anything. Just try not to burn off anymore chakra meanwhile."

"Hey, Naruto?" Tails asked, his voice sounding shaky.

"Yeah, kid?"

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

"Huh? What for?"

"For what happened to Sasuke. That he got killed and everything. I knew all about the bond you guys had. I know he was like a brother to you."

"He was," Naruto said with a far off look in his eyes. "I came all this way to Mobius was so that I could bring him back home. But now, it turns out that I have another brother whose bonds I need to protect now," Naruto slipped an arm around the kit and pulled him into a tight hug. "And I'm really glad I met you."

"Naruto, after we're done with or mission here, I'm leaving Mobius. I'm coming back with you guys to Konoha to train. I'm gonna learn more ninja moves."

"Great! I can show you all my secret super powerful perverted ninjutsus."

Tails grinned, revealing his sharp canines and elbowed Naruto sharply in the gut. "So, when are you gonna teach me that Rasengan, huh?"

"When you teach me how to fly that plane," he punched the fox back playfully.

"That's easy," Tails said sleepily. "You'll figure it out in one day. After that, you'll never want to come back down again. It's so peaceful up in the sky," he tilted his head upwards. "You feel so free…"

"Can't wait, bro," he smiled down warmly at the kit who had fallen asleep on his lap. Yeah, flying had been a big dream of his along with the whole Hokage thing. He asked Ero-sennin a billion times if there were any flying jutsus out there, but that got him nowhere. Leaning his head back against the tree, he closed his eyes, and thought about the blue sky.

"Naruto, what the hell is this?" Suigetsu shouted, holding that giant sword up to his face, completely destroying Naruto's few moments of peace and quiet.

"What the hell is what?" Naruto asked. And what the hell was this crazy guy doing shouting and waving his sword around like a maniac?

"Don't play dumb with me! Take a closer look," the mist nin bared his teeth in frustration as he pointed his index finger to a specific point on the edge of the sword.

Naruto squinted his eyes to focus on the spot where Suigetsu's finger lied. Upon closer inspection, Naruto discovered a series of small cracks and nicks running along the width of the blade.

"Just look at the damage you did!"

Suigetsu's shouts were ignored by a wave of Naruto's hand. "How do you know that wasn't there before?"

"There is no question that this was done by you, you walking blonde disaster!"

"It hit the true Sword of Kusunagi. That thing can cut diamonds. What do you expect?"

"I expect you never to hold a sword in your hands ever again. You have no respect for weapons!"

"It's just a sword," Naruto repeated. Maybe Zabuza's sword was cursed and it made anybody who touched it go crazy, Naruto wondered.

"Just a sword?" Suigetsu sputtered. He did not believe the blasphemy that came out of this guy's mouth. "This sword is at least as old as the hidden villages themselves. According to legend, this very zanpatou that I hold in my hand once cut through the Kyuubi's hide."

"I'm really not in the mood for a history lesson now," Naruto yawned. "I'm kinda tired."

"That's it," Suigetsu said finally, shouldering his sword and turning his back to Naruto. "I'm gonna have to teach you exactly what 'just a sword' can do. I'm headin' down to kill Orochimaru. When you find us, you'll learn what this zanpatou can do in the hands of a master."

"Fine. Just go already."

Tails wriggled out of Naruto's arms and started to hurry after Suigetsu. "Let's follow him, Naruto. We gotta catch up to Sonic and beat Orochimaru!"

"Hold on a sec," Naruto pulled him back by the arm. "Let's sit down and come up with a battle plan like we did last time. You're real good at that sort of thing."

"A plan? Okay, let me think about that," Tails pondered and chewed over possible strategies while he chewed on a juicy looking bone left behind by Sasuke.

"Don't suck on that bone. It's so gross," Naruto said with a disgusted face.

"What's the big deal?" Tails protested. "It's not like that Sasuke's gonna come back for it or anything."

Suddenly, the dead pile of bones came to life again. A headless Zombie Sasuke now rose up against the two kitsune boys.

Tails and Naruto shrieked in unison and almost leapt into each other's arm when the headless zombie charged his body anew.

Before it could blast the place with another devastating Chidori Nagashi, a buzzing black swarm hovered over Sasuke and latched itself onto him. Shino's kikai bugs, Naruto realized. The bugs were everywhere, sucking out every last drop of chakra from the zombie. In seconds, the kikai bugs had their fill and dispersed as quickly as they came, leaving behind a dry headless corpse on the floor, lifeless once again.

"You have a lot to learn about fighting zombies, Naruto," the bug's owner approached.

"Yeah? And who are you supposed to be?" Naruto asked the shirtless stranger.

"I can't believe you would ask that kind of question, Naruto-kun," the 'stranger' glowered at Naruto. "Do you not recognize me?"

"Shino?" Naruto stared blankly at the dark haired, dark eyed ninja. To think all those coats he wore hid his ripped muscles. "Geez, this is what you look like under all that?"

"Small talk about my unknown appearance will have to wait for later. First, I must tell you why I am here," Shino said as he donned a new pair of sunglasses and began his story.

"Sakura, Kiba, and I followed Akamaru's nose for traces of Orochimaru and our search took us to the deepest and lowest levels of these catacombs. Kiba and Akamaru all but fainted when we they were overpowered by the rotten stench of dead flesh. We reached a series of caverns where the waters grew thick and stagnant. When we found enough light, we realized that we were standing waist deep in a river of blood and gore. We were surrounded by hundreds of corpses, Orochimaru's hapless victims, carelessly floating in a watery graveyard. We realized then that these were grounds for Orochimaru's insane experiments. He murdered all those people."

"That's some scary stuff," Naruto admitted. He tried his best to idea the fact that he was shaking. "What happened down there?"

"Back at our encounter at Robotropolis, Sasuke disappeared in a chemical explosion. No body was found and Orochimaru escaped alone. To bring him back, Orochimaru must have saved some of Sasuke's DNA and applied his knowledge in the science of unlife to the bodies of his victims. The results of his experiments allowed him to grant all of Sasuke's qualities to the dead, even some form of the Sharingan apparently. But there's something else. When I attached my bugs to the zombie, I had it analyze its chakra potential. In his life, Sasuke had the ability to suppress your Kyuubi chakra. A hidden power of the Sharingan. Orochimaru managed to enhance that particular power to higher levels. I imagine his research with the chaos emeralds helped him with that."

"Shino, what are you saying?"

"What just attacked you was the result of Orochimaru's necromancy," Shino said. "Now that Tails has unlocked the Kyuubi's chakra, Orochimaru has been determined to eliminate him as a threat. To this end, he created an effective anti-Kyuubi fighter. A creature that can drain away the Kyuubi's chakra on contact. You'd best be very careful, Tails."

"Naruto, there's one more thing. Don't mistake what you fought as a mindless copy of Sasuke. That corpse has his will as well. The will to kill you."

"It's all right, Shino. I know what you're saying. Don't worry. I'm not chasing Sasuke anymore. Let's just get Hinata and we'll get moving."

Tails was already on his way up, flying through the trees. He found Hinata under the shade, watched closely by a Naruto clone.

"Hey, Hinata. We beat the Zombie Sasuke. It's over!" Tails shouted excitedly to wake up Hinata. "Hey, come on, Hinata," Tails shook her gently. Not getting any results and without thinking, his hands found their way up to her breasts and he started to shake them to stir her awake.

"Don't go jiggling Hinata's boobs, you perv," Naruto lightly struck him on the head with a fist. "Even though they are kinda big and…"

"Naruto-kun…?" Hinata woke up suddenly. Startled by Hinata's sudden waking, Naruto almost tripped fell off the branch.

Naruto caught sight of her burnt and bleeding hands. Hinata's hands weren't healed from her earlier cuts and bruises. Catching a bolt of lightning in those hands probably wasn't the best thing for them.

"Hinata," Naruto smiled slightly and brought out another roll of bandages. "If you keep on busting up your hands like this, I don't think even Sakura-chan can help."

Naruto then paused, looking troubled. "Shino, you never told me what happened to Sakura-chan. Where is she?"

"They all came after her at once, acting as if I wasn't there," Shino said sadly. "They took her. I could not stop them. After getting Kiba and Akamaru to safety, I immediately followed them. Their trail led me to this spot. I'm surprised I only found one."

"Shino…" Naruto sensed a dark dread descend upon him. "What do you mean "only one?"

Suddenly, their very surroundings exploded as the dungeon came crashing down with hundreds of arms. They came from everywhere. More zombies. All with the Sharingan. All had Sasuke's face.

"ZILLIONS OF ZOMBIE SASUKES!!" Tails cried out again.

They shuffled towards the team with their katanas held out. Their protruding tongues salivated with the desire for living flesh.

"There's way too many of them," Shino yelled. "We must retreat."

"Not until we find Sakura-chan!"

"I'm the one they want. Leave them to me," Tails declared with determination as he dropped out of the trees.

"Tails! Come back!" Naruto shouted.

Tails flew over their heads and ran off with his two tails spinning. A stampede of howling undead turned around and followed close behind him. Just as Tails thought, he was their number one target.

"Tails!" Naruto yelled again for the kit to come back, but he was gone and by now, his voice was drowned out by the endless moaning of the dead, hungering for his blood.

"Naruto! Behind you!"

Naruto's head snapped back towards Shino's voice. There he found one particular zombie standing on the tree branch. There was Sakura, captured in Sasuke's skeletal grip. His clawed hand tugged on her pink hair, pulling her head back and exposing her neck. Sasuke held his blade razor sharp blade across her throat.

"Naruto…" she whispered, blood dripping down her mouth

"Sakura-chan…"

The blade slid ever so gently across the skin, leaving a thin red mark that slowly leaked out a trickle of blood.

"Put. The. Sword. Down. Sasuke," Naruto said very slowly and calmly. "You don't want to do this."

Sasuke said nothing back, but the hatred in his dead eyes spoke volumes. There was not a damn thing to do. Was this the final fate of Team Seven, Naruto wondered. Sakura would be dead, Sasuke a monster, and Naruto would suffer the worst by being the loser who lived and could do nothing to save both.

"Just let her go, okay?" Naruto said again.

Sasuke replied by pressing the blade deeper. The thin red mark grew larger and Naruto and Shino could only watch as red droplets fell down her neck. Sakura whimpered slightly, hot tears falling onto the cold blade. Naruto had never seen the super strong kunoichi so helpless before.

A gunshot rang out. Sasuke's head exploded violently. Sakura shrieked and cringed as her face and hair got showered with gore. Seconds after death, the zombie let go and both Sakura and the sword fell out of the zombie's hands and clattered to the floor.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto caught her, but she hung limp in his arms. He whirled around and found the source of the gunshot.

It was Hinata with a smoking gun gripped tightly in her hands.

"Hi-Hinata…" Naruto gasped. Even Shino's eyes widened. "You've become a total psycho."

Hinata blushed heavily and almost dropped her gun. "Ano, I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. It-it's just that, well, Shadow-kun gave me a gun and he said I had good eyes and-and I had some potential. Do you want me to stop?"

"Hell No! I want you to keep shooting! Fire away like crazy!"

More brains starting popping as Hinata took aim and fired against the horde of zombies. Sensing danger, they sprang up against her. Hinata's empty hand flashed out, striking their vital spots. The zombies shrieked and fell back as their chakra coils were shut down. With their chakra trapped, her next strikes easily crumbled their bones into dust.

"It appears that Hinata is a natural zombie killer," Shino said. "Naruto, you had best go after Tails. Hinata and I will protect Sakura and we'll clean up this mess."

"Yeah," Naruto nodded and hands Sakura over to him. "Just don't let them eat your bug infested brain."

Shino snorted. "Infested" would hardly be his choice of words. There was no point on correcting him, however. Naruto would never learn and besides that, he was already on his way out.

"You'd best take cover, Sakura. Undead creatures tend to have the strongest desire for the flesh of only the most beautiful women," Shino said in a detached and analytical fashion.

"Oh, Shino. You say the most romantic things," Sakura whispered.

"We will discuss these passions of yours another time," Shino summoned a defensive wall of bugs. All zombies that touched the wall fell over instantly, writhing in agony as their chakra was sucked off their bones.

Understanding the danger of the Sharingan, Shino's bugs made sure to go for the eyes, crawling into their eye sockets and devouring them.

Sasuke instinctually knew that fire was the bugs' greatest weakness and so retaliated with a raging ball of fire from his mouth.

"Get out of the way!" Gamakichi leapt in and knocked Shino and Sakura aside.

"Where did you go?" Shino asked.

"I had to get more sake. So now we've got more of them, huh? And I thought one was enough." Gamakichi grumbled and took a bug chug from his personal sake. "Now I'm ready for them."

Sasuke fired another fireball. The big toad unsheathed his katana and sprayed sake from his mouth, soaking the blade with Myouboku Mountain's sacred sake. After dipping his sword into the fire, Gamakichi's sake saturated blade flared up with a dazzling blue flame.

"These guys should know not to throw around fireballs so carelessly," Gamakichi grinned, bearing his katana.

With Shino and Hinata disabling the zombies' chakra with bugs attacks and Jyuuken strikes, and Gamakichi slicing them apart with graceful arks of blue fire, they cut a pathway for Naruto to make a clear exit and chase after Tails.

While engaged in combat with Zetsu, Yamato couldn't help but be distracted by noticing the wave of undead Sasukes that were on the move.

"This has gotten way out of hand. I can't stand wasting time like this anymore," he said. **"Mokuton Shinsou!" (Wood Spears)**

More branches sprouted from the trees. This time, they were thinner and shot out faster with razor sharp tips. Yamato directed them towards the Zombie Sasukes to impale them, or at least pin them down. It was especially hoped that he could capture Zetsu alive and extract the wealth of information on Akatsuki he must have held.

Zetsu, however, was a tight lipped shinobi and had nothing helpful would come from his mouth.

"**San Ibuku no Jutsu!" (Acidic Breath Technique)**

Zetsu countered by expelling a stream of corrosive green acid strong enough to eat through steel. Yamato's wood attacks melted into a mass of useless brown ooze.

"My business here is complete. I must take my leave." Zetsu said.

"That must mean that they have arrived," said black Zetsu.

"Yes," white Zetsu hissed.

"Wait!" Yamato cried, but Zetsu had already melded with the trees, vanishing from sight.

"Tenzou," Kakashi's voice crackled through Yamato's earpiece. "What's your position?"

"Orochimaru's chamber. We have our hands quite full at the moment. I just had a run in with a member of Akatsuki."

"All right. I'm gathering everybody together and we're heading towards your location. Just stay where you are and keep everyone safe. Get ready."

Get ready for what?"

"There are two more Akatsuki members heading your way. We're going to take them on."

* * *

Meanwhile, in the other parts of the Labyrinth, the other teams of Konoha made their way to meet up again.

"Hold up," Chouji huffed. "I need to eat."

"Don't stop now, Chouji. We're on high alert. Even Shikamaru is putting in all his effort." If Ino knew that their enemy was a horde of bloodthirsty Sasuke-kuns, she wouldn't have rushed either.

"I know. I'll make up for it," he panted and pulled a plump rice ball from his weapons pack. "It's just that if I don't fill my stomach, I can't use my full strength."

"Still, I don't see how you could eat in this dank, unsanitary place," Ino said.

"If you're hungry enough, you can eat anywhere," Chouji replied.

"Let him eat," Shikamaru said calmly. "I wanted to stop anyway so we could make some plans."

"What's on your mind, Shika?"

"We need to know what everybody else is doing. Naruto's team already reached Orochimaru, but I haven't been able to make contact with Temari on the outside. She hates it when she calls and I forget to pick up. I doubt she would do the same. Meanwhile, Shino said his team was attacked by monsters, and then got cut off. This whole thing gives me a bad feeling.

"If we die down here, then I definitely need to eat up," Chouji said. He was about to scarf down that rice ball in one bite, but then a shuriken flew out of nowhere, knocking the rice ball form his hands.

"Who impaled my snack?" Chouji asked in a low, dangerous voice, his eyes brimming with fury.

As the team turned to scan the area, they stared into the eyes of Uchiha Itachi.

"How did he get in here?" Shikamaru asked. "He must have gone through Gaara and Temari."

"Yes. I did encounter the sand siblings when I tried to enter the Labyrinth," Itachi admitted. "They were very insistent that I not enter."

Itachi held up Temari's signature tessan. The large steel fan was broken in half. Blood stained the white paper that was torn to shreds.

"What did you do to Temari?" Shikamaru demanded

Itachi didn't bat an eye. "She wanted to prevent me from entering. I disabled her ability to do so."

"What's the plan, Shika?" Ino asked.

"I…have no idea. No idea at all."

"Sleep," Itachi said, making a light wave of his hand. Ino and Chouji crashed to the floor instantly. Only Shikamaru still stood, fighting away waves of exhaustion.

"You killed her, didn't you?" He stared hard into the eyes of the Akatsuki illusionist.

Itachi said nothing.

"Answer me, murderer!"

"Why are you still awake? This would be so much less bothersome if you would submit peacefully."

"Dammit, I'll kill you, asshole," Shikamaru snarled. Shikamaru whipped a pair of trench knives, one in each hand. He charged and swung wildly in blinded rage. Itachi leapt clean over the swing, plucking the blades out of his hands as he passed. He took one swipe of the blades near his head. Shikamaru's topknot came undone. His long hair fell freely over his shoulders. With a second attack, Itachi drove the knives into the Nara's shoulders.

"Genius has its limits, but that doesn't mean you have to be an idiot," Itachi said softly.

Shikamaru could say nothing in reply. He could only grunt weakly as he fell unconscious in a heap with his teammates.

* * *

Lee was getting very anxious. According to the alert from Kakashi, Naruto was waging war against an army of Sasuke zombies. Meanwhile, his team had a run of the most unyouthful luck. They had such and uneventful search, not finding a single interesting encounter throughout their crawl through the Labyrinth. The traps of the Labyrinth weren't much of a challenge for Team Gai and it made Lee especially restless.

"We must hurry!" Lee shouted. "My youthful spirit has run out of patience. It must act!"

"There's an extremely strong chakra presence radiating ahead of us." Neji said. "We're getting very close."

Their pursuit let them to a chamber with a large steep ramp with a waterfall running down to the lower levels.

"Hey, you guys," Neji looked up to see Sai heading towards them.

"Sai, what have you seen?" Neji asked.

"Don't go that way," Sai said. "I'm trying to warn you. It's too dangerous."

"Wait!" Lee grabbed Sai's arm and held it firmly. "You are Anbu, correct? Let us face the enemy together. Our youthful talents combined will—"

"My talents aren't any good here, idiot. The enemy ruined all my ink with just one technique. I can't help you."

"Sai, who was the one that attacked you?" Tenten asked.

"Man, who would guess I'd bump into this trio once again?" a sinister voice rumbled ahead. "Can't say I'm disappointed. We're gonna have lots of fun this time."

Heavy footprints pounded on the dungeon floor. A heavy sword was slung over his shoulder.

"I see," Neji leered at the oncoming nemesis. "Hoshigaki Kisame."

"How did he get in here?" Tenten asked. "I thought Gaara was watching the entrance."

"He was," Kisame said. "At first Itachi said, 'Hey, Kisame. Let's sneak in so we won't have to waste our chakra.' But then I said, 'Hell no, Itachi. You always want to solve things the quiet way, but this time, I wanna have some fun with the Kazekage. You can have the fan girl. Maybe you can turn her into another of your own, fangirls, eh?' He got mad at me for that comment, but we decided to go my way and fight them in the end."

Strapped behind his back was the infamous Samehada sword, but Lee was shocked to see that he was also wearing Gaara's sand gourd on his back.

Even more surprising was when he saw Gaara's feet jutting out of the cracked opening. There was a muffled sound coming from inside as his feet kicked desperately to break free.

"Why so shocked? Kisame asked. "I wrote the book on Jinchuuriki capture. I'll include you guys in the sequel. Let me just get this load off my back."

Kisame tossed the sand gourd away, leaving Gaara to take a long and fast ride down the water slide. The muffled scream continued, slowly fading until was drowned out by the rushing waterfall.

"I refuse to believe any of this!" Lee exclaimed. "Nobody could defeat Gaara-san like that!"

"You're just upset because you're talking about the guy that once beat you to a bloody green pulp back in the day. And now you're facing the guy who made short work of him. You can do the math and guess what the outcome if this fight will look like."

"Gai-sensei did not train us to be mathematicians," Lee said. "We are fighters. Not calculators."

"Lee, that's enough," Tenten said. "Try to calm down."

"No no, keep talking. I was hoping to see the three of you again. I remember that bomb you threw at my face, little girl. And who could forget getting nailed by that vacuum attack of yours?" he turned to Neji.

Lee closed his eyes and gathered his strength. He pictured a sparkling image of Gai-sesnei in his thoughts, smiling down on him with his perfect white teeth "Gai-sensei, in your name I will defeat your arch-nemesis once and for all!"

"I have no idea who that person is," said Gai.

"Perhaps that pea-brained sensei of yours will remember me better when I send you three back to him with my name engraved in your bones. I won't even need Samehada for you," Kisame flung the sword from his hand with enough strength to drive itself deep into the wall. "All I need to take you all out is one hand. You see, I learned a new jutsu that I'm just dying to try out."

Lee snorted indignantly. "My ears are being poisoned by your lies! The flower of youth is the eternal flame. A single move cannot crush the Green Beast!"

"Heh, when I'm finished with you, you're gonna go from being the Green Beast to the Green Booger," Kisame said as he held out an outstretched hand, chakra already starting to swirl in his palm.

* * *

"What was I thinking?" Tails asked himself as he bolted through the dungeon with a horde of very pissed off zombies on his tails. He was running low on stamina getting very tired. The zombies had no need for stamina and were never going to get tired.

"I need something to hold them back for awhile. I need…I need…a rocket launcher!" Tails announced and he unrolled another storing scroll.

A huge bazooka fell into Tails' hands, one that the fox could barely hold onto. Nevertheless, he lifted the rocket launcher and took aim for the closest zombies that came lunging in, skeletal hands blazing with lightning. Tails launched a single missile. Tails flew back, but the rocket hit the zombies dead on and exploded, clouding the area with smoke and scattered bones. Several Uchiha skulls came rolling in front of Tails' feet. He kicked them away as he tossed aside the empty bazooka and summoned a pair of pistols in each hand, ready to brawl with the legions of the undead. Sure enough, another wave of Sasuke zombies marched through the clouds of dust and smoke. The hunger for the living burned in their glowing red eyes.

"This is getting really serious," Tails said as he formed his hand seals. "Luckily, I'm not all out of chakra just yet."

"**Tajuu Kage Bunshin Kitsune Zouheishou!" (Mass Shadow Clone Kitsune's Arsenal)**

When the mist settled, each Sasuke beheld a small army of Tails clones littering every corner of the Labyrinth, all armed to the teeth with guns and artillery of every kind.

Red and blue chakra saturated the air. All the Tailses and Sasukes screamed as they leapt into battle.

Blades, bullets, bones, and blood flew everywhere.

"Eat your heart out Shadow," Tails said to himself as he unloaded his ammo.

Elsewhere, Shadow the Hedgehog sneezed.

Chaos reigned in the Labyrinth mazes. Tails flew in a red rage. If Sasuke came in too close and managed to disarm Tails, that kitsune savagely pounced on the zombie and gnashed his bones apart with his demonic teeth.

"T5, gimme some cover! T8 and T13, get those charges in place," Tails shouted orders to the clones. The Tails bunshins followed their orders and stuck explosive charges to the walls as they passed. The fight took them back to the large open chamber. Tails remembered this position where the fight took place between himself, Suigetsu, Naruto, and Hinata. He recognized the large hole in the roof was blown via an out of control jutsu. The water that flooded the place had been drained out since they were last here, due to the Labyrinth's constant motions.

Tails soared all the way up through the hole in the ceiling and out into the night sky. "Sonic always hated this place," Tails smiled to himself.

With a click of the detonator in the fox's hand, Labyrinth Zone exploded with overwhelming force, flooding the tunnels with flame. Down below, he heard the dying shrieks of the undead, their rotten flesh consumed by fire.

"Finally…I got them all…," Tails panted. He finally had a chance to breathe. He sighed in relief when the explosions below died down and the night air was quiet again. If there were any Zombie Sasukes left, they were gonna have to fly their bony butts up here to get him.

Not one of his super keen fox senses could detect the handful of zombies coming to ambush him.

One of the Zombie Sasukes escaped the blast. A pair of grotesque wings sprouted out of Sasuke's back with a spray of blood. The wings were as dead as he was, a pair of bony fragments with webs of stringy meat barely hanging on. And yet he still flew. Tails' ears perked to hear the flapping of skeletal wings from all around him. More flying zombies came in, circling around Tails. Their drawn swords reflecting the cold moon's light. Their swords came in from all sides and carved into him. Blood and fur flew across the night sky. The lightning conducting blades got to work immediately. Tails was too paralyzed to fight back as a pair of arms made contact with his flesh and drained the life energy out of him, chilling him to the bone.

The zombie's mouth opened impossibly wide and bit down into Tails' flesh where his shoulder joined the neck. Under the silver moonlight, his blood came rushing out in a hot black gush. The light in the Tails' eyes went dead.

Sasuke flung Tails aside, greedily slurping up the fox's warm blood before it got too cold. Tails plunged down through the sky and back into the dungeon. His fall ended with a bloody and broken crash on the crags below.

* * *

Naruto burst into the room, kicking over piles of bones as he made his way through the smoke filled chamber. The place reeked of gunpowder and charred flesh.

"Tails! Where are you?" he hollered.

No answer.

"Tails, you better come back. If I don't bring you back safe, Hinata will bitch slap me again."

Maybe he wasn't even here, but something told Naruto otherwise. Tails was definitely here and he continued to search every spot. Shafts of moonlight illuminated the center of the room. It was there that Naruto saw the light beaming down on a small furry orange body.

"Tails?"

Naruto finally found him. The fox he was looking for was lying slumped over the broken rocks, motionless.

Naruto bent down and nudged the kit's body slightly. "Come on, cheeseball. Wake up…please?"

Tails didn't budge. Nothing moved except the blood that leaked out slowly from the lacerations all over his tiny body.

Naruto kneeled down to examine the body. He didn't need to check for signs. He has seen enough corpses in his short life to know when somebody was dead, but he checked anyway. Tails was cold to the touch. He wasn't breathing. No pulse. No heartbeat. Tails was truly dead.

Naruto knelt down miserably on the floor, his eyes downcast and sorrowful. He picked up the kit and cradled him in his arms and started to cry.

"Tails…I'm so sorry," Naruto hugged Tails' broken body close, feeling his soft fur on his face one last time. "I promise I'll never forget you."

The group of cursed seal zombies hovered above, their wings poised, but Naruto couldn't bear to look at them.

A crow's cry echoed through the empty chamber.

"It appears that we both came too late. Didn't we, Naruto-kun?"

He recognized that voice.

Naruto looked up and saw Uchiha Itachi standing on a high ledge looking down at him with the same expression in his eyes. As usual, Kisame was right behind him. The Akatsuki pair leapt from their spot and landed on the watery ground without making a sound.

"You see, Itachi? This is why we can't keep stopping for tea and dango on every mission," Kisame said jokingly. "We missed out."

Itachi said nothing in reply. He kept his eyes focused intently on Naruto.

"You look upset, Naruto-kun. You haven't known him for very long. A few days are not long enough to truly develop a strong brotherhood with that fox."

Naruto made no effort to hide his tears form the Akatsuki nins. "Shut up! You wouldn't know anything being a brother!"

Itachi ghosted a thin veiled smile as he bent down closer. Naruto blinked and missed it. "No, I guess I wouldn't." Saying no more, he reached into the folds of his cloak and whipped out a small paper tag inscribed with some kanji and slapped it over Tails' eyes.

"He's only been dead for a few minutes, correct?" Itachi asked. "If so, then this should still work. The Shinigami's Ofuda was created by the Leader in case something like this happened. As long as that tag remains over his eyes, it will keep the kit's soul bound to this world. That will allow us to take him and proceed with the Bijuu extraction process."

"Wait, you're still going trying to do that? You guys don't give up, do you? Would it kill you to just let the poor kid rest in peace?"

"It's essential that we bring back the Nine Tails Jinchuuriki. You will be coming along with us as well, Naruto-kun. But first, I will deal with these mockeries of my brother."

The zombies snarled like rabid wolves at their living brother, their teeth dripping with blood and their swords charged with lightning. They surrounded Itachi from all sides, circling around him and flying above him. Itachi stood in the center as calm as always. Sasuke lunged at Itachi and brought down his katana in a slashing arc of blue lightning. Itachi stopped the zombie's swords in mid-charge with his bare fingers, snatched them from their hands.

"I never taught you swordsmanship, little brother."

Itachi went on the offensive becoming a deadly whirlwind of black and red as he cleaved down the zombies with each fluid swing of steel.

"It looks like Sasuke's got a real bone to pick with you, Itachi," Kisame smiled and pointed at the next gang of zombies rushing in for the kill.

"Perhaps so," Itachi let the swords drop from his hand and he threw his hands together in a rapid set of seals that ended with a palm slam in the ground. A web of black markings stretched along the ground. Naruto recognized a summoning jutsu, but had no idea what was supposed to come out.

"Oh boy. He's really gonna do it," Kisame said. You'll get a kick out this jutsu. It's crazy."

"**Kuchiyose no Jutsu."**

From the spot where Itachi created the summoning circle, there was a stab of red light. A great blast broke from the ground wildly, creating a deep chasm in the earth. The air suddenly went up a hundred degrees in seconds. The ranks of zombies started backing away. Their decayed faces showed fear. Something rose up from the depths. A massive bloated demon, the spirit of flame and shadow. It's streaming red mane blazed with fire. Black smoke fumed from its giant maw filled with tusks. The demon let out a rumbling growl like a raging inferno. Its clawed hand held a giant curved scimitar that glowed with heat and dripped with blood.

"Itachi has signed the most forbidden of all summoning contracts," said Kisame. "A pact with the demon world. They said I wasn't ruthless enough to sign the contract, can you believe it?"

"What is it?" Naruto asked. The reflection of the infernal fires swirled wildly in his blue eyes.

"Ifrit, the evil Djinn of Fire has come."

Even Kisame could not look upon the demon's face without shrinking back. His blue face turned somewhat pale. Only Itachi remained unfazed.

"I suggest you take cover, Naruto-kun," said Itachi.

Naruto took heed and dove into the murky dungeon water holding Tails tightly to his chest and swam as far down as he could go. Above him the surface of the waters shimmered with the glow of fire

"Ifrit, Hozoukimaru." (Demon's Light) Itachi commanded.

The winds in the air started to pick up as the demon djinn flew high above and channeled a huge mass of chakra into his massive sword, then released it all at once. Bolts of fire lanced outward, blasting the zombies with unholy light. Kisame grimaced under the heat and held Samehada to his face. Itachi looked as if nothing interesting was happening. The army of Zombie Sasukes cried out in agony one last time as they were all blasted into dust and ashes that scattered through the burning winds of the Labyrinth.

"Ifrit, you will find all the others who bear the symbol of Konoha and keep them out of our way," Itachi ordered. The djinn only nodded and teleported away in a pillar of fire and smoke. "That will leave just us now, Naruto-kun," the Uchiha turned to Naruto and held out his hand. "Give the kitsune to me. He's no use to you anymore."

"You'll have to tear my arms right out of my sockets before I let him go!" Naruto cried defiantly.

"I don't believe in unnecessary violence," Itachi said. He gave a simple flick to Naruto's forehead. It somehow forced his arms to open. Tails tumbled out of Naruto's arms and into Itachi's.

"Give him back!"

Itachi did not bother to look back. "He's all yours, Kisame."

Kisame featured his most lethal grin yet. "This'll be great, Kyuubi boy. I got a special treat for you I just know you're gonna love."

"Like I care! Get out of the way, you mutant sea bass!"

"Sea bass?" Kisame's beady little eyes narrowed. "Now that's gonna do it."

"**Rasengan!"** Kisame shouted. Naruto stopped, stunned to hear the name of one of his techniques pass through the lips of the shark man. Kisame rammed the orb into Naruto's stomach. The fierce vortex of chakra seared across his chest. Blood flew out of Naruto's mouth as he felt his insides being churned about like butter. Only when Kisame got bored of the agonized look on Naruto's face did he end the jutsu. Naruto was thrown back violently, smashing through walls of solid stone.

Naruto lied in the pile of rubble. His clothing from the waist up was reduced to shreds and there was a nasty spiral scar burnt into his stomach. He let out a pitifully weak groan as he tried to climb onto his knees.

"Stay down!" Kisame pressed his massive leg down into Naruto's stomach, slamming him back down, ribs cracking with the blow.

"That's enough, Kisame. We're taking him, too."

Kisame pressed the huge bandaged sword onto his chest. Naruto felt his chakra coils go numb as his last bits energy were siphoned into the chakra eating sword. Naruto blacked out and fell on top of the sword's tip. Kisame lifted his listless husk up as a trophy upon his sword.

"If you think this treatment was cruel, wait till you see the butt ugly statue your bijuu's going into," Kisame laughed as he followed his partner out of the chamber, carrying both jinchuurikis.

* * *

"How did I end up getting crammed into the belly of this frog?" moaned Shikamaru.

"Quit moping over it? Would you rather be out there fighting the Akatsuki?"

"Troublesome either way," he muttered.

"You're mind decides what's troublesome, not external forces. Try to think about something that isn't troublesome, if such a thing even exists."

That wasn't an easy thing for Shikamaru to do. The past events in his mind were not pleasant. He remembered getting violently woken up by Temari, which was a shock on its own.

"Get up, Shika," she pulled at his arm. "Geez, you're so heavy when you're lazy. We're all going after the Akatsuki and I need you to come so you can avenge my death."

"You're clearly not dead," Shikamaru mumbled.

"No, but you must've thought I was. That counts, too."

"Sounds troublesome. Why don't you drop dead for real? Then I'll avenge you."

"Bastard!" Temari punched him in his knifed shoulder.

"OW! That hurt."

"Stop focusing your mind on the pain! What did I tell you?"

When Shikamaru was up and moving again, he was met with Kakashi and had all the details filled in. As soon as Kakashi knew about the Akatsuki intruders, he sent out a search party of his ninja dogs to recover everyone and bring them together. Starting with Temari on the outside, he found Gaara next, then Team Gai, Sai, and lastly, Team 10, all of them left incapacitated by Akatsuki. From that point, it was easy to find Yamato and his group who had left a trail of tree branches winding through the Labyrinth passages.

Yamato neglected to tell Kakashi about the zombies. When he arrived at the forested chamber, Shino and Hinata already managed to thin the numbers down, but it was still the best mission the ninken ever got to take part in.

That is, until the two Akatsuki nukenin entered. When Itachi and Kisame appeared, all the dogs whimpered and backed away in fright. Seeing the obvious problem of facing down two of the deadliest members in the organization with most of the group injured and powerless, Kakashi ordered Gamakichi to swallow up all the wounded. The toad responded exactly the way Shikamaru might've by complaining there was no way he could stomach that many people and their dog at once. Yamato aided and shot out a thick wooden beam from his hand and jammed everyone into his mouth. Even Kabuto was bound up with wooden chains and dumped into Gamakichi's stomach. It was a tight squeeze, but The only ones left who stayed outside were Kakashi, Yamato, Shino, and Hinata. Now there was nothing left to do but wait until this whole mess got sorted out.

"Can't think of anything?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "Well, you are alive. That's a big relief. You never told me how you survived Itachi."

"He could've killed me easily the way our fight went. I guess he was just toying with me," she said. Shikamaru noticed that she had one arm in a sling. Blood leaked through the white bandages. It appeared to be a painful gash from a deep kunai wound, but the judging by the way Temari was talking, it was as if she didn't feel even a hint of pain.

They knew Itachi was there, even though they didn't dare look at him.

"Kakashi is feeding me info," Shikamaru pointed to his earpiece. "I can give them tips while they fight Itachi. Except…"

"Except what?"

Shikamaru sighed. "Itachi is an entirely different type of genius than I am. There's nothing I can say that can help them fight this guy. They're on their own. But then again, Kakashi is also a genius. So is Shino, so who knows?"

"Shino, are we clear of all those zombies?" asked Kakashi.

"My bugs are searching for anymore traces of that abnormal chakra, but it seems that they're gone."

"Good, then there will be nothing to get in the way of our fight with Itachi."

Kisame chuckled. "You guys shouldn't pick on Itachi so much. It's his birthday today, you know."

"I wasn't invited to the party. And we need to give him his presents," Kakashi turned to Shino. "You were never able to test your abilities against the Akatsuki, Shino. Now's your chance. Don't hold back."

Shino nodded slightly and put his coats back on. "I was hoping for some time that I would get to meet this genius, Uchiha Itachi."

Itachi watched the Aburame kid's movements carefully. "I'll handle this, Kisame," said Itachi. "I've dealt with Aburames before."

A black cloud suddenly enveloped Shino, the blackness seeped out of his coat.

"Fly," he commanded his army of creeping doom. Instantly, a black cloud of destruction bugs flew out of his cloak and swarmed towards the Akatsuki pair. The black, buzzing cloud of bugs latched themselves onto Itachi and Kisame, crawling all over them, into their sleeves, up their necks and over their eyes.

"You must have thought you had defeated everyone guarding the Labyrinth when you beat the Sand siblings, but that would be mistaken," Shino stated loudly over the bugs' constant buzzing. "My kikai bugs were also set up to watch the entrances. They have been attached to you since the moment you stepped foot into this zone."

Itachi stood frozen as the bugs crawled all over him, out of his sleeves, up his neck, and over his eyes.

"Itachi, these creepy crawlers are making me itchy," complained Kisame.

"Relax, this will only be a moment," Itachi replied.

Under his dark shades, Shino's eyes were shut tight. He heard the reports that Itachi's genjutsu skills were so high that he could trap someone in an illusion with just a finger. Shino took no chances when dealing with the Uchiha criminal and took not one glimpse of him with his own eyes. Luckily for him, he had the perfect defense. He relied on the signals of his bugs to give him the information he needed. They could communicate to him where Itachi was at any moment and what he was doing. Right now, they told him that Itachi and his partner were trapped, completely immobilized.

"Too easy," Shino thought. Kisame already had an advantage over his kikai bugs. That sea monster had so much chakra that the entire Aburame clan could gang up on him and feed off his chakra and he would still walk away alive. But Itachi was never known for that kind of stamina. But if he was the genius they claimed him to be, he had his contingency plan.

Itachi stood completely still, even as one little bug decided to crawl right onto his eye.

"It's too late. You are already trapped in my genjutsu," Itachi said.

"That's impossible. I haven't seen you even once." Shino replied

"I wasn't talking to you," said Itachi.

No. The genjutsu wasn't meant for him. It was for—

The swarm of kikai bugs let out a chorus of high pitched shrieks and separated from Itachi. They circled and buzzed around him like a black halo, but for some reason never came within six inches of him.

"Unbelievable! Never before in the history of the Aburame clan has this been heard of."

"What is it, Shino-kun?" Hinata asked.

"He cast a genjutsu on my bugs. Itachi has complete control over my entire colony. As for me, I am left powerless."

"Yes. I suggest we run right now or kikai bugs will eat us alive."

"Looks like we've debugged that problem," Kisame laughed loudly.

"Chidori!" Kakashi poured lightning into his hand. Little jolts of electricity leapt from his hand, incinerating every last one of the kikai bugs into tiny bits of ash.

Shino looked unmoved, but Kakashi knew from past experience with the Aburames in the last Ninja War that Shino was actually grieving deeply.

"I'm sorry, Shino. It looks like you'll have to find yourself a new colony," Kakashi said.

"Hey," Kisame called out. "Maybe you should change your title from Copy Cat Kakashi to Kakashi, the walking bug zapper."

"Don't count out my copy cat ability just yet," Kakashi said, lifting his hitai-ite from his left eye.

"For your sake, don't use your Sharingan against me," Itachi warned. "You will regret it."

"I can't imagine there's anything you can do that I would regret more than if I let you just walk away.," Kakashi said.

"I promise you that what you're about to see is not a genjutsu of mine. Return to me, Ifrit."

Kakashi's eye clearly saw the demon coming, instantly recognized what kind of summon it was. The ground around them shook as stone and rock rained down and smoke and ash filled the air.

They ran away as the air cracked with terrifying blasts of flame. The stone walls were a blur as they ran past them. Behind him, Kakashi could hear the demon's heavy breathing.

"Keep going," Kakashi commanded. "I'll hold it off."

Kakashi lifted up his hitai-ite and revealed his own Mangekyou Sharingan. With but a glance, the air started to ripple as space time folded over itself and a black hole opened up in front of the djinn.

IfrIt roared and a great blast of flame seared into his eye. Kakashi shut his eye tight, canceling the jutsu, but blood still leaked through his eyelids.

"Senpai!" Yamato shouted. **"Hokage Shiki Jijun Jutsu: Kakuan Nitten Suishu!" (Hokage Style Retirement Technique: Enclosed Hermit Insertion Heavenly Hanging Palm)** An intense burst of emerald flame leaped from his hand. The mysterious demon suppressing power of the Shodai smote the dark demon. A low, hellish growl escaped through its tusks. It was in pain, but it did not disappear. Yamato's chakra was powerful enough to seal one possessed by a demon, but not the real thing.

"It was too much," Kakashi panted. "I couldn't do it."

"Your orders now?"

"This is beyond all of us. If we stay to fight, we all die."

The demon's steps shook the ground. Kakashi and his companions ran like Hell.

Kakashi swore behind his mask. "We have to find another way to reach Itachi. I'm not letting him get him away. Pakkun, what's the story with Sonic?"

"He's still alive. His scent is mixing up with Orochimaru's. They're closing in on each other. Itachi and Kisame are moving in that direction."

"They're all going to collide. That won't be pretty," said Kakashi.

"We have just one more problem, Kakashi-senpai."

"What could that be?"

"It's Hinata. In the midst of all the chaos, she disappeared."

* * *

"It's too bad we're in a hurry," Kisame sadly shook his head as he his raced through the tunnel. "I wish we could see what's going to happen to Kakashi's team." He laughed loudly and kept on laughing until something sprang up and kicked him right in the face.

"Owww!" he staggered back from the blow, almost dropping the captured jinchuurikis. "Who the—"

"Shame on you," Hinata scolded. "For what you did to Naruto-kun and Tails-kun."

Kisame's head turned to follow Hinata's movements only to receive a pistol whip whacking him across the face.

"That wasn't very smart, sweet cheeks" Kisame growled, rubbing his aching jaw. "If I lose another tooth…"

Hinata aimed to fire, but Kisame snatched her wrist and squeezed down almost hard enough to snap the bones to pieces. With the gun limp in her hand, the rogue Kiri-nin put another hand on the barrel and squeezed, scrunching the pistol into a ball of metal.

Kisame had never killed a Hyuuga before. He killed an Uchiha or two back in the Mist village, but Hyuugas he never got to see often.

Kisame flung Naruto off the tip of his sword. The bandages slipped off the shredding blade. Kisame heaved his sword down. He could already imagine the squishy, yet crunchy sound of soft human meat being mushed to a fine paste. How surprised he was when what the heard was the loud clanging of two big swords clanging together.

Zabuza's sword. Kisame identified by the sound alone.

Standing over Hinata's huddled form was the white haired ninja of the Mist, Suigetsu holding Samehada's sister sword, Kubikiri Houchi.

"Going into battle against a mist swordsman without a sword?" he smiled to Hinata. "Naruto: Way of the Dumbass ninja must be rubbing off on ya."

"And you using a tool for murder to protect people? That's not like you at all," Kisame said, just as amused.

"Don't worry, Kisame. It's still the old me. It's just that I want to pour out all my killing wrath on you and pluck that sword from your fishy fingers."

"Itachi, I could use a free hand for this," Kisame said, tossing the black bag to his teammate.

"That kitsune is very important to us. I'll move on ahead," Itachi said. "Do as you like with the boy. You'll find me when you're done."

Itachi broke into a run through the tunnel, the fierce ringing of heavy swords echoed faintly the further down he went.

"What are you doing, girl?" Suigetsu growled at Hinata, who was still cowering on the floor. "Are you gonna just stare at my handsome face or are you gonna get out of the way?"

Hinata was too breathless to say anything, but her feet answered for her as she got up and ran, her ducking low to avoid the swinging arcs of the huge swords.

"Ughnnn…," Naruto awoke with a pained groan. His bones, so badly broken and battered, groaned and refused to let him up. He gritted his teeth and drew out a hidden resolve to get up and push ahead. On his feet now, Naruto stumbled through the hall, one hand clutching his stomach. His vision was swimming, but he still saw Itachi getting further away.

"Naruto-kun. What are you doing?" Hinata ran up to his side.

"What does it look like?" he said. "Somebody's gotta catch that guy."

"B-but that's Itachi you're talking about and you're hurt."

"Those are all things I know," Naruto said. "But I'm still going after him. I still have a way of the ninja to follow."

"Come on," Hinata said. She put his arm over her shoulders. Together they moved on ahead. "We'll go after them together."

* * *

The escape tunnels were utterly dark. Sonic had no idea how to find Orochimaru, but if the sharp hissing that pierced through the mist was anything to go by, he had to be close.

"Light thinks it's the fastest thing in the universe, but it is wrong. No matter how fast light goes, it will always find that darkness has already gotten there first, waiting for it," Orochimaru stepped out of the misty blackness right in front of Sonic. His pallid face gleamed in the emerald's light. "Waiting to devour it."

"Don't try to devour a hedgehog. That's all I've got to tell you." Sonic flashed him a cocky grin.

Orochimaru's sword flared in the darkness with its blue light. "You're pretty happy for a guy who will soon be dead."

"I'm happy because I get to brag to Knuckles that I beat the guy who cleaned his clock. He'll never live it down."

"Confident, aren't we?" Orochimaru mused. "You should really take this more seriously. You haven't even transformed into Super Sonic yet."

"Why should I do that? So you can crawl into my mind again and pump me up with your killing intent?"

Orochimaru shook his head. "Don't worry. I'm not going to do that again. That was just a test to see Super Sonic's capabilities with my own eyes. And I've learnt a great deal from that time. After observing your actions, I've concluded that you've never taken advantage of the chaos energies to its greatest extent. As dense as you are, I've considered training you so that you could truly master the power. But now I think you are just unworthy. I don't think you even care about such things. For your ignorance, your punishment will be death. Your corpse will be used for further study."

"Gee, that makes me feel a lot better," Sonic said flatly. "Look, why don't we just get this over with."

Orochimaru nodded. He couldn't have agreed with him more. In one hand, he readied his sword. His other hand pointed at the hedgehog**. "Senneitajashuu!" (Hidden Shadow Hand of Many Snakes)**

Orochimaru's advanced Snake Hand technique released dozens of snakes form his robes, all flying towards the hedgehog with their fanged maws open wide. Each snake possessed its own sword positioned to skewer Sonic.

Sonic leapt back. He revved up a spin dash and shot forward, slicing off serpents' heads as a blue bur zipped by. Using his skill as a living pinball, Sonic bounced back and forth along the tunnel walls. Orochimaru's grin turned sour as he watched his snakes nearly tie themselves in knots trying to catch the bouncing blue ball. Sonic was like a buzzsaw, hacking the shadow snakes to scaly pieces. Even before the pieces hit the ground, Sonic was speeding towards Orochimaru.

"The Sword of Kusunagi isn't made of ordinary metal. Even in your spindash, if you touch it, you'll be cut in half," Kakashi warned him earlier.

Even still, Sonic came spinning head on. Orochimaru swung to slice the blue ball in half. Only at the last second, Sonic unrolled and swung his cutlass in a super speeding arc of silver. The katana flung from the sannin's hand and clattered to the floor.

Sonic finally landed adjacent to Orochimaru's blind side, the sword placed right against the serpent shinobi's neck.

That grin of his couldn't have been wider. "Whaddya know? This is a lucky sword."

"Go ahead and gloat if you like, hedgehog," sneered the snake sannin. "Just remember, my death will signal only the beginning of your troubles, not the end."

"I take 'em one day at a time," Sonic said lightly. "But you got your own troubles to worry about," Sonic pressed the sword deeper. "Any last words, Oro?"

"Some advice, actually. You might want to do something about that sidekick of yours. The demon inside him will make him much stronger than anything you've ever faced before. And when that time comes, you will be the only one who can kill him."

"I don't give a rat's ass about what kind of demon is running inside him. He's still my little bro."

"Have it your way, but I would really wish to see you fight your little Kyuubi brother to the death just to see who's strong—"

Orochimaru never got a chance to finish. Sonic's spines went spinning. Sonic tossed the cutlass aside, choosing to do this the old fashioned way. Razor sharp quills sliced through flesh like butter. White skin opened up to release a showering of dark red blood. The snake sannin's body collapsed dead on the ground. His severed head rolled away into the darkness. The rest of his body lay on his stomach and blood slowly expanded outward, creating a growing pool of dark liquid around his headless corpse.

"Yech," he wiped the stuff out of his eyes and then soberly observed his victim. "This is nothing like killing robots." Sonic wished all his enemies could be lifeless machines. He hated killing living things, but there was no question. This was a must kill. Orochimaru was too dangerous, too evil to live.

Sonic felt like running as fast as he could. It would help wash the blood off his spines and besides that, something was telling him that he needed to get back to Tails fast.

Sonic started, then froze as he heard a low, eerie hissing sound coming from behind. The hedgehog' head snapped back, but he saw nothing. Orochimaru still lay dead on the floor.

"Must be hearing things," Sonic shrugged and kept going.

The pool of blood around Orochimaru's body began to simmer and bubble. The blood started to rise up, taking the shape of snakes. The blood serpents came to full life, hissing and flickering their forked tongues. Before Sonic could register what was happening, they wrapped around Sonic's ankles and slithered up his body, binding his arms and legs tight. A swarm of slimy white snakes crawled out of Orochimaru's body and retrieved the Sannin's head.

"Foolish little hedgehog," spoke the sannin's disembodied head. "I am Orochimaru. I am undying."

"You've got to be kidding me," Sonic beheld his enemy, now more snake than man. "What does it take to kill you?"

"Like the mythical Lernian Hydra , if you cut off its head, it will always grow back. I am that legend," Orochimaru's laughter culminated with his fangs sinking deep into the hedgehog's neck.

"Orochimaru…you…"

"Yessss. It's time you dropped that fake smile of yours, hedgehog," Orochimaru spoke, but not from his mouth. The Lord of Snakes was speaking in Sonic's head. "Show me your real emotions that you always hide. They will give me power."

Sonic stopped struggling. His strength and speed were sapped away as his blood drained out of his veins, sucked away by those vampire fangs.

As for Orochimaru, his eyes were wide and alive with excitement as a sneer twisted his visage.

"Years of contact with chaos energies have saturated your blood. I'm taking it all for myself."

"All right, Orochimaru…" Sonic said in defeat. "I'll give you what you want."

Sonic closed his eyes in concentration. His entire body began glowing with a visible golden aura. A brilliant radiance as bright as sunlight blazed through the dark tunnel. An incredible blast of force knocked the sannin in the he middle of his drink.

Orochimaru dropped to his knees as the power rushed through him, overloading his capacities, and coughed out blood. His horrible yellow eyes now glowed with the brightness of the sun. Screams of pain soon switched to laughter. Orochimaru's head snapped back as he cackled madly.

Sonic gripped his neck as he got to his feet more slowly than normal. Who knows how much blood he lost?

"That amount of chaos energy is deadly to most humans."

"That's just it. I'm not human," the Sannin spat.

"How right you are, Orochimaru," a quiet voice, soft with malice broke in.

Another shinobi stepped in, almost hidden in the shadows with his long black and red cloak.

Sonic scowled fiercely as the newcomer stepped forward calmly, transfixed by the red glimmer of his eyes.

"Itachi? What are you doing here in my lair?" Orochimaru snarled.

"You've been wanted by Akatsuki since the day you left the organization ten years ago. You remember that day you left well, don't you?"

"You've never been the type to reminisce about old times, Itachi. What do you want here?"

Itachi lifted an accusing finger at the snake lord. "Your mad ambition with the chaos emeralds has gone on far enough. I'm come to put an end to it."

"Great. Now I'm stuck between two psycho super ninjas who want to tear each other apart. Yo. Hang on a sec. You're Uchiha Itachi?"

"You've seen my face before?"

"Yeah. Tails showed me a picture. He said something about you trying to capture him," Sonic said that last part in an icy tone.

"That's right, kukukuku," Orochimaru interrupted. "Itachi is your enemy, Sonic. You must kill him for me."

"Stay out of this, Oro. Go crawl up Robuttnik's butt hole where you belong!"

"I am no enemy of yours, Sonic the Hedgehog," said Itachi. "You're free to leave in peace as long as you stay out of the way. However, if you choose to fight me, I will kill you quickly and effortlessly."

Orochimaru cackled like the madman he was. His eyes glowed all the brighter for it. "Arrogant prick! Your eyes won't help you this time. No matter how great your Sharingan is, it is no match for the power of Chaos."

"You rely on those emeralds far too much. For in the end, the fate of the world will rest not in those arcane stones, but in this small kitsune," Itachi said and lifted Tails lout of the bag.

As soon as he saw Itachi's hand emerge from the bag gripping the two tails and the rest of his buddy's body hanging upside down, Sonic's energy levels entered explosive territory.

"You should be grateful. Orochimaru's creations would have torn him to pieces had I not intervened."

Another bad guy who thought he was doing the word a favor. Sonic rolled his eyes. He had heard this spiel before. "Yeah, I can tell you're a real saint, but I can take care of him from here."

A blinding yellow bolt shot past Itachi. He looked down at his hands to see that they were empty. Ahead down the tunnel, Super Sonic now held Tails in his arms.

Itachi quickly ran a hand through his hair, straightening it out nicely. "I can't let you do that. You will have to leave him with me."

"The hell I will. I'm outta here and I'm taking Tails with me. You can have Orochimaru. You two deserve each other."

Orochimaru giggled. "You didn't count on Super Sonic appearing. What will you do now, Itachi?"

Tears trickled down Sonic's cheeks. He had never seen Tails in this kind of shape before. One look would've told him that Tails was dead if not for the fact that his chaos powers revealed a life force flowing through the fox's body. "Don't worry, Tails. We just gotta get you home and you'll be fine," Sonic hugged him protectively. "Let's just get this thing off you." Sonic touched the edges of the inscribed tag, just about to peel it off the kit's eyes.

"I wouldn't remove that if I were you," Itachi warned.

"Why? What did you do to him?" Sonic demanded.

"I did what needed to be done. Tails has an important destiny ahead of him, but you will have no part on it. This time, you will be forced to leave him behind forever."

"Like that's gonna happen," Sonic scoffed. "The only way you're getting to him is by killing me. And you'd have to be pretty damn fast to do that."

"Believe it or not, my eyes can keep up with your Super Sonic speed," Itachi said. "With my Mangekyou Sharingan."

Sonic picked up a distinctive shing sound in Itachi's eyes as he stared at them intently. The three tomoes shifted and merged together to make what looked like black shuriken in his eyes.

Sonic's power burst outward from his hands and formed a shimmering globe around Tails.

"Just hang tight a little longer, buddy. We're almost done here."

"**Amaterasu." (Goddess of the Illuminated Heaven)**

Black flames streamed out of Itachi's red eyes, releasing the hottest fire in existence. The ebony flames roared out until it filled the entire tunnel and grew into a raging inferno. Super Sonic held out his hand and fired an intense beam of light against the blazing darkness. The two energies collided, the brightest shining light in the universe against the hot shadow flames that burned eternal. But this time, it was not like a normal clash between darkness and light. The dark didn't shrink away from the light, but only grew stronger. Heaven's goddess proved hotter and stronger than Chaos. The beam of light sizzled and screamed trying to push back the black firestorm. They repelled each other until the fires of Ametarasu overcame Sonic and snuffed out the golden light completely.

The fires washed over the protective globe that held Tails, devouring it. Although the globe was destroyed, it served its purpose as the black fires passed by without a single hair on Tails being singed.

But Sonic had disappeared leaving no trace behind. Tails belonged to Itachi once again, but before he could reclaim him, there was only one thing left to do.

"Orochimaru," Itachi called out. "I know you are still here. Come out of the shadows that you hide in and face the death you've evaded for so long. It is just you and me now."

"You're as blind as they say, Itachi," echoed the sannin's cruel laugh. "You have no sense for chaos energy. If you did, you would know that what you said isn't true."

Sonic emerged from the melted ruins where Amaterasu struck. Itachi stared wide eyed. Sonic was alive, but the forbidden dark jutsu still took its toll on his body. His golden aura covered only about half his body haphazardly, appearing as if the black flames burnt the aura right off Sonic's skin like tattered clothing. What was left pulsed and crackled erratically around him, flickering like a candle flame on a dying wick.

"The dark flames of Amaterasu are so hot that it can burn fire. It can even burn through the light of Chaos," Itachi answered the question he saw in Sonic's petrified eyes. "You are alive even after a direct hit, an impressive feat, but you won't be so lucky a second time." Itachi flicked the drop of blood that slowly started to drip from his eyes.

"Now with them distracted, this will be my best chance to kill the kitsune." Orochimaru said to himself and chuckled evilly.

A slithered blur leapt from the darkness. Orochimaru's devilish eyes were wide with killing intent as he prepared to slash the kitsune in half. The glowing blue katana came down on kit with a great stab of light. Sonic rushed to capture the blade in his hands. From the corner of his eye, Sonic saw Itachi crack a smile.

"Tails, buddy, you are just a magnet for sharp, pointy things, aren't ya?"

"Ignorant hedgehog!" shouted Orochimaru angrily. The legendary sword pulsed just as furiously in both their hands. "Don't you understand what will happen if this kit is allowed to live? He will grow to become an unstoppable killing machine. He could easily wipe out your world that you've worked so hard to protect!"

"Tails is my world! He's everything I'm trying to protect!" Sonic shouted, pushing all his energy into the katana and slicing it through the empty air.

"You fool! What are you doing?"

A lightning strike and a thunderclap filled the area, as a hole in space opened up. A thousand galaxies and a billon stars swirled within the black void, behind the tear in the dimensional fabric. Violent winds rushed into the vacuum, lifting all loose objects and sucking them in. The Sword of Kusunagi was meant to cut the chakra barriers between worlds with the user's chakra, but when overloaded with such strange and powerful energy, it meant cutting a deep wound in reality.

"Hey, Oro. Did you know about this trick?"

The seven chaos emeralds materialized from Sonic's body and floated above him. With a snap of the hedgehog's fingers, they blasted off into the void, scattering in all directions.

"No! My emeralds!"

The Super Sonic form flickered out and Sonic reverted back to normal. The black hole pulled him in, but not before he reached out to Tails and placed a small shining object in his hand.

"Tails…I'm leaving Mobius in your hands now." That was his last thought before blacking out completely and slipping into the void.

"You little blue imp," Orochimaru snarled, seething. "I am Orochimaru. I do not give up that easily." After swallowing the Sword of Kusunagi with a single gulp, he dove into the roiling maelstrom. He frantically scanned the dark skies for traces of the emeralds, but they were now nothing more than dwindling sparks of the rainbow, flying away into the deepest parts of space.

"We will get those gems back. You will help me do it," Orochimaru coiled one single snake around Sonic's waist. Together, they disappeared into the black vacuum, chasing after the scattered sparks.

* * *

Kisame somehow knew that something was wrong with the chakra in the air. Samehada felt it, too. Ever since Kisame was paired up with Itachi, Samehada gave off these weird vibes whenever the Uchiha master started flinging these crazy jutsus from his eyes. The sharkskin sword was telling him right now to check it out. If Itachi got carried away, he would need his help, but right now, the way was blocked by that white haired mist brat.

Itachi was just going to have to wait.

The most rolled in thickest around the two aquatic swordsmen, cutting them off from everything else around them.

"I never thought I'd run into you on this planet. Just what's your deal here, Suigetsu?" Kisame asked.

"Swords are my deal, Kisame. You of all people should know that. I want your sword. I want Orochimaru's sword. I bet Itachi has a sword that I want. And my two-tailed pal says he can build swords, so I'm gonna have to take him with me, too."

"That's a hell of a wish list there, kid. You ever hear that when you lust after too much, you always end up with less?"

"I've waited for this moment for a long time, Kisame-senpai. You've got no idea how badly I've waited for a chance to duel with the great Samehada and its master."

"I'm sure," Kisame said, "but the thing is, I don't have a lot of time to give. You like weapons, so I'll let you in on a little secret. I took a gander at some of Akatsuki's top secret plans. The kinds of stuff only the higher ups are supposed to know about. Every ninja group's got them, you see. Anyway, the bijuu collection is all part of the plan to develop some sick ass jutsus and weapons. Stuff you've never seen before. I like you, kiddo, and I'm sure I can get you in as a member. We can hook you up real nice."

"You talk too much, Kisame-senpai. It's not like you at all," Suigetsu leapt forward to strike, but Kisame was already on the defense. Their big swords met.

"You don't have to accept my generous offer. I was just being nice, but either way, you'll never possess this sword."

Suigetsu sucked in his breath and collided with Kisame again, coming in hard and fast. He knew Kisame. He knew that if letting up for even a second meant inviting an attack from Kisame's freakish strength. Kisame wasn't nearly as worried and his murderous grin remained in place through their interlocked words. He leaned back to create some distance. Suigetsu shot out further and he could feel Zabuza's spirit flowing through him as he pounded against Semahada with the force of a tidal wave. Sparks showered from their swords, lighting up the mist with an electric glow. Scales from Samehada fell loose. The tip of the giant cleaver broke past the sharkskin sword and sliced a new gill into the shark man's face.

"Come on, Kisame. I was so disappointed when I heard you got beaten up by one small kitsune. Is this really all you got?"

Kisame wiped away the blood form his cheek, but he never lost his cheerfully evil grin. "You know something? Now that you mention it, I came down here hoping I could get back at the little squirt for what he did to me, so I've got a lot of aggression to work off. Since he's not around, I guess I'll have to take it out on you."

"Bring it on. I'm so steamed I could do this all day."

"Think again. I'd expect from a novice like you that you haven't noticed my Samehada sucking up your chakra. You're actually way weaker than you were before you started this fight."

"What are you talking about, Kisame?" Suigetsu sneered.

"Look at my sword. Think about it. What's the point of wasting my energy hitting you if I'm just gonna go through you like water? Why not just wait and let you drain yourself out first?"

"What are you talking about, Kisame?" Suigetsu sneered.

Kisame heaved a long drawn out sigh. "Man, you bring new meaning to the term 'wet behind the ears.' I'm saying you'd better get yourself a glass of water, kiddo, because my Samehada just had a nice snack and is stronger than ever."

The blue faced monster growled and slashed upwards. The furious attack knocked right past Zabuza's sword and raked across Suigetsu's chest. His purple vest exploded into ribbons and blood dyed the mist red.

Suigetsu lost the strength even to grin. Stupid Naruto. He must've messed up the sword somehow. There was no other way he could lose.

"Why so upset? You wouldn't want a sword that couldn't kill you, do you?" Kisame took another swing, scales shredding apart his arm.

With his sword arm falling apart, Suigetsu stood up and embraced the handle with his other arm. He felt a lot stronger holding the massive zanbatou in both hands. He didn't even mind the way his blood leaked over the handle and through his fingers.

"I'm not pulling back, Kisame-san. I've gotten a hell of a lot stronger since you've last seen me. I've learnt some new moves."

"Yeah? So have I. Like this one."

"Rasengan!" Kisame roared. The mist gathered around his hand in a spiral and Kisame shoved the pulsating jutsu into Suigetsu's broad blade. The dazzling light from the Rasengan's chakra blinded Suigetsu. The blast deafened him. The force of the impact tore him from his sword and threw him off the ground. Kubikiri Houchi flung from his hand and vanished on the thick vapors.

"Kubikiri Houchi…It's gone! I must have it back!" Suigetsu said as he tore through the mist searching for the lost zanbatou.

"Relax, your sword is safe and sound," came Kisame's voice from behind the mist.

Kisame's hulking form now stood grinning before him. He looked larger and more menacing than ever now that he held both giant mist swords in each hand.

"Tell me honestly, don't you wish you were me right now?"

Suigetsu dropped to his knees and bowed his head. "As to be expected from the great Demon Shark of the Mist and his Samehada. I acknowledge your victory" he said in a low defeated tone.

"Hey, if you're gonna praise me, be happy about it. A mist swordsman always faces death with a smile."

Suigetsu wasn't smiling. In fact, he made no human facial features at all since his face slowly melted along with the rest of his body and he reduced himself to a puddle of water.

"Running away? I bet you can't stand the idea of leaving this sword behind, but don't worry. I guess I'll just have to take it for safekeeping. See ya around, kid."

"Not if I see you first," muttered the Suigetsu puddle, but by then he had already disappeared through the cracks and Kisame ran off to find Itachi.

* * *

Hinata's Byakagun had never seen anything like it before. Heck, no Hyuuga's Byakagun had ever seen anything like this before. It was as if she and Naruto traveled through the caverns only to wind up at the edge of the universe. Her eyes looked ahead and saw the roaring vortex where a tremendous amount of chakra gathered together.

"I think we're almost there, Naruto-kun. Just hang on a little longer."

Kisame appeared in a cloud of mist before Itachi. His jaw dropped as he stood before the spiraling wormhole.

"Itachi! What did you do this time?"

"I have never created anything of this type of caliber," Itachi replied. "This was because of Super Sonic's powers."

"The hedgehog turned Super Sonic? Where is he? I want to fight him."

"He's gone. He disappeared through the portal with Orochimaru."

"They're gone? At least we have the kitsune. That's the most important thing," Kisame said.

The walls of Labyrinth Zone came tearing down around them, stone by stone. The waters started to flow upwards. All matter was sucked into the maelstrom. It all made Kisame feel very sick.

"How much longer do we have until this place goes down?"

"No more than a minute."

"I can't stand how cool and collected you look in all this chaos," Kisame growled. "It really pisses me off! Let's get going."

"Hang on. Naruto is coming."

Naruto let himself free of Hinata's support and lumbered towards the rogue ninjas. Every step he took sent another lance of pain into his ribs. He barely held on to the one kunai in his hand.

"This is not the time to fight, Naruto-kun. You're needlessly endangering your life."

"Stuff it, Itachi. I know you can't kill me."

"Maybe not, but I can still break your spine," said Kisame. "We'll see how well your way of the ninja stands up to that."

Kisame raised his Samehada to its greatest height. Then, just before he could swing, the dungeon shook from bottom to top, knocking him off balance. Somehow, Itachi stood as if nothing had happened. Then the ceiling above them opened up, the crumbling stones went flying through the portal.

A giant frog dropped from above, followed by Kakashi and his team.

"Yo! It's a portal to Konoha!" Gamakichi shouted. The second he opened his mouth, Kabuto tumbled forth. Still trapped in Yamato's bindings, he ran towards the portal.

"Don't worry, Orochimaru-sama! I'm coming," Kabuto cried and jumped through the gate, disappearing from sight.

You're all still alive? See, Itachi? This is why I hate summons," Kisame snarled. "You can't trust no one but your blade."

"It's not over yet Kisame," Itachi said. He looked up to his crumbling surroundings and was the first to see Ifrit bringing his two ton body crashing down.

"This is your last chance, Kakashi," his bleeding eyes glared at the masked jounin. "Flee or die. Either way, Tails belongs to us."

"Take everybody in, Gamakichi. Pakkun can guide you back to Konoha. Go with them, Yamato. I'll stay behind."

"You sure about this?"

"I won't leave anyone in my team behind, but you guys don't need to be in danger anymore. Just go!" he pointed to the howling maelstrom.

Pakkun jumped through first. Gamakichi followed, carrying the rest of the crew. Yamato went in next, but Kakashi held his place waiting for Naruto and Hinata.

"Run, Naruto! Get inside!" Kakashi yelled.

"But…what about Tails?" Naruto asked weakly.

"I'll take care of him. I promise. There's nothing left for you to do here."

They fled towards the portal as fast as they could run, but Naruto tripped again and fell to the floor. Ifrit halted when he caught up to Naruto and he raised his massive sword and sent it down to cleave Naruto's skull.

* * *

Inside the Kyuubi's seal, away from all the outside chaos, everything was still and silent and darker than ever. Tails' floated on top the black waters.

"**It's never gotten this dark before. We have been defeated, kit! How humiliating! And by the same cursed eyes that haunt my dreams. We cannot allow this to pass. Those eyes that exist to drown the world in darkness will not take us away."**

"But I'm dead," Tails whispered. "I can't do anything."

"**Indeed you would be, but Itachi has given us a window of opportunity. Dead you are, but your soul remains here, ready and able to use my chakra. In fact…I think you're ready for the third tail."**

"I'm gonna have three tails?"

"**Don't be ridiculous. What good would three tails do? Each tail you have represents a path, granting you new abilities. Nine in total. You've already released two of them. One tail gave you super strength. The second tail let you infuse my chakra into your creations."**

"What does the Third Tail do?"

Kyuubi grinned. His flashing white teeth stood out brightly against the black space.

"**I'll show you…"**

Ifrit's scimitar came down just as the tag over Tails' eyes burned off and he jumped out of Itachi's hands. There was a ringing crash and an explosion of fire. When the fires dimmed enough for Naruto to open his eyes, he saw the red sword's giant blade that was just inches away from cutting him in half was now blocked with one gloved hand from a certain two-tailed kitsune.

"What's going on?"

"Tails has returned…" Kakashi said. "With a vengeance."

"**The Third Tail gives you control over the demon world."**

""Do something, Itachi!" Kisame screamed.

"There's nothing left for us to do," he replied calmly. "We'll have to leave for now."

Kisame opened his mouth to protest, but Itachi was already leaving. Kisame sighed and reluctantly followed his smaller partner to wherever it was he was going, leaving behind their prey once again.

"Get lost!" Tails commanded in a high and mighty voice, one that no one had ever heard from him before. "I wield the chakra of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the great Demon Lord. Before my power, your dark fire means nothing. Return to whence you came."

The shadow beast roared in defiance. The fires wreathed around him grew hotter and turned into a deep purple. Tails glowed in a dark orange fire. The tips of his tails glittered with a brilliant white light. The horrible wounds that scarred his body closed up. The giant scimitar swung down to cleave Tails in two. There was a ringing clash and an explosion of fire, scattering violet and orange sparks through the darkness. Amidst the conflagration, the massive flaming sword was trapped in between the kitsune's two white tipped tails. Ifrit fell back and the unholy sword blew apart into metal fragments.

The djinn halted, facing his awakened enemy, molten eyes narrowed to slits. Tails looked up with his own demonic glare. Ifrit snorted fire from its nostrils and drew itself up to its great height and its massive wings spread from wall to wall.

"You don't scare me. Bow to your true master! Go back to the Nether realm. I banish you forever!"

The earth groaned and rocked beneath their feet. A vast soaring darkness sprang into the sky, flickering with fire. An unseen force pulled at the demon, dragging him back to Hell. With a terrible cry, Ifrit, the fiery demon djinn plunged down into black unknown depths, the fire swallowed up by the emptiness.

"**Hehehehe…"** Kyuubi chuckled. **"Well done, kit. I think these dumb demons forgot who their king is. We're going to have a lot of work to do when I go free."**

"Tails has given us our chance! Let's go," Kakashi shouted against the howling noise of the void.

Naruto took one last look back before jumping in. "Tails! Come with us. Sonic went through this way. We're going after him!"

"Go ahead!" the kitsune called back. Even when surrounded by demon powers, he still managed the friendliest of smiles. "I just need to seal up this gateway to Hell. I'll be there in just one second."

Naruto nodded, rubbing the small tears in his eyes. Following Kakashi, they ran ahead into the maelstrom.

A whip of lashing tongues of fire sprang from the darkness in a last ditch effort. A flaming whip reached into the portal and curled around Hinata's feet, dragging her back, all the way into Hell.

"Hinata!" Naruto swam against the tide and grasped her hand. "I'm not letting you go."

The forces around them threatened to tear them apart. The way into the void in one way, the way to Hell in the other.

"Hinata..." Naruto said in a strained voice. "…Be strong."

And with that, their fingers slipped away from each other. Naruto shrank away and became smaller and smaller as he was taken through the void until he became like a small star, shining way off in the distance. Meanwhile, Hinata was pulled out of the portal and further down into the fiery depths.

Tails jumped after her. He grabbed onto her as they plunged deeper into the abyss.

"Don't worry, Hinata. We're getting out of this Hell," Tails promised.

Holding onto Hinata's hand with one hand, he held up the small green emerald that Sonic gave him in the other. It was the Guiding Star Gem. A gift from Knuckles. The star inside gleamed brightly. Sparks of green light surrounded them both and they shot off into the heavens, leaving the world to crumble around them.

An immense implosion swallowed up the entire dungeon. The portals to the other worlds closed.

"Damn. I never should've left that faker alone with the emeralds," Shadow the Hedgehog cursed himself. "If only the idiot knew how to chaos control properly."

Shadow chaos controlled himself over to Labyrinth Zone. It was just as he feared.

Labyrinth Zone was gone. Shadow found himself standing in the midst of an empty, smoldering crater.

**To Be Continued…**

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**Kisame said that line about Itachi's birthday because it was on June 9 and I was hoping to update this by then, but I got held up. So Happy belated birthday, Itachi! But it still made it just in time for Sonic's birthday. so it's all good.**

**I gave Itachi an Ifrit summon because he's a master of fire jutsu, so he would probably summon demons. I got the idea when I saw the chapter where Itachi went nuts and said he was gonna steal Sasuke's eyes and then there was this big 'ol demon hanging around behind him. Ifrit is a demon that appears in Sonic Rivals 2 actually, but I was really picturing the FF Ifrit and a little bit of Lord of the Rings got in there. Kisame got a Rasengan because his fighting style is similar to Naruto's, since they both have inane chakra levels, so I thought it'd be the kind of technique he would learn.**

**Thank you all for your patience. I really appreciate it. So that's it for now. There's some great fanart by Lycropath that I forgot to put up. Please check it out.**

**Happy Summer!**


	16. Watch the World Burn

**So it's been many moons since my last update. It's been over a hundred days, actually. A lot has happened, but here we are again. Thanks to everyone for reviewing. Writing this story wouldn't be as much fun without you.**

**Chapter 16: Watch the World Burn**

It was close to midnight in Fire Country and the full moon's light shone over the mountains, across the valleys, and through the tress surrounding the shinobi village of Konohagakure no sato. The woodlands lay silent this night, save for a few the splashing and giggling coming from a team of young kunoichi chounin that had found themselves a nice cool mountain spring all clearing in the middle of the forest.

Stopping to catch their breath after a long trip across the country, they were hot and sweaty and covered in dirt and grime, having just completed a grueling B-rank mission. Sighing with relief at the sight of the clear pool of water that sparkled under the moon ad stars and glittered with the light of the dancing fireflies. Eagerly, the kunoichi threw off their green flack jackets. They never realized what a living hell it was to wear those things. They were designed to provide protection and ease of movement, but they could still be insanely hot in the summer. After tossing aside those cumbersome vests, they sat by the lake and slowly got undressed.

None of them noticed the faint rustling in the nearby bushes.

As it were, there were rumors circulating that a strange creature was on the prowl near the village. One that liked to prey on the flesh of young girls.

"Hehehehehe, this is pure gold. I could never have picked a better spot," a man's heavy voice tried to suppress his chuckling as much as he could.

None of the kunoichi had a second's thought that they'd be alone, and so nothing stopped them from stripping away every piece of clothing.

"Jiraiya's Ninja War Journal. Entry 0009235: Jackpot!" At last, the old perverted sannin was suffering from severe writer's block and this was just the ticket out of it.

One of the kunoichi pulled her mesh shirt off and smiled. "Oh, that feels soooo much better," she sighed and ran a hand over her breasts, wiping beads of sweat off her skin.

Jiraiya put pen to paper again and scribbled furiously. "One of them is a Hyuuga. I'd better be very careful or she'll see me."

The Hyuuga girl, just a few years older than Hinata from the looks of it, had only to throw off her traditional white robe to reveal that there was nothing under it. This was a common custom for some Hyuugas.

A stream of blood streamed out his nose as Jiraiya gazed at the girl intensely and tried to simultaneously take notes.

"_The moonlight adds the perfect ambience," _Jiraiya noted. "This is exactly the kind of scene I've been searching for."

As hard as he tried to concentrate, Jiraiya almost fainted from blood loss, but a loud splashing and chorus of giggling woke him up and he turned to watch the three kunoichi all naked now, frolicking in the lake.

"Look! Shooting stars!" one of the girls shouted and pointed to the sky.

Jiraiya briefly diverted his eyes and saw the meteor shower. Seven shooting stars blazed across the night sky. Each with its own color.

"How wonderful," Jiraiya remarked. "That's going straight into the book, too."

"It looks like it's getting closer."

The giggles turned to shrieks as a burning red comet came down upon them, crashing them. A blast of ruby light emitted from the point of impact. Jiraiya jumped out of his hiding place just before the nearby shrubbery was engulfed in the blast radius and set on fire. The water from the spring was instantly vaporized, leaving the three kunoichi shocked and shivering in the nude, cloaked only by a fine red steam. The chounin team stepped towards the empty crater where the meteor now rested. There, they looked upon it with awe for what it really was. It was a brilliant cut gem. The biggest they'd ever seen, resonating with a celestial red glow.

"That's no meteor," Jiraiya whispered, carefully inching closer.

Suddenly, he heard several gasp. Jiraiaya then realized that his face was reflected clearly off every one of the gem's facets.

"_I've been discovered!" _All three ninja girls immediately spun around and stared directly at the pervert, who stared back in terror.

"Kami-sama, if I make it through this unharmed, I promise I will become a monk and never again shall I gaze at the forbidden flesh."

The girls shrieked even louder than before and charged at him, kicking and punching, and throwing him into the empty lake where he smashed face first into the muddy rocks.

"Wait…don't you want your robe back?" Jiraiya called out, but by then they had already disappeared.

Jiraiya sighed heavily and took a seat on the bottom of the lake. "A perfect night had to end on such a downer," he groaned. "And why? All because of this stupid rock."

The rock replied only by humming its eerie glow.

Jiraiya spat the grime out of his mouth and wiped the blood off his nose. "You're one interesting troublemaker, you know that?" he said to the gem. "I bet you're good at causing all kinds of chaos where you're from. Speaking of which, where did you come from, anyway? I'd better ask the ones who know."

Jiraiya slammed his hand on the ground. A small toad appeared. He was elderly looking, wrapped in a dark black cape, and a small staff in hand. The old toad looked up at Jiraiya, frowning at him with the thickest white eyebrows that could put Gai's mighty brows to shame.

"What's going on here, little Jiraiya?' the old toad spoke. "I thought you were working on some kind of porno. It doesn't look like that's going so well."

"Perhaps you could tell me more about it, Fukusaku. Ever seen one of those before?" he directed the toad's attention to the glowing gem.

"It's been awhile since I've seen one of these up close," said the toad. "One of the Chaos Emeralds. Straight from the world of Mobius."

"I know where it's from," Jiraiya said grumpily. "I need to know how it got here and why it's interfering with my research."

"That depends. You'd need to ask a chaos emerald user. Anyone who possesses them can release them and disperse them all across the universe. Most likely that's what happened."

"Where can I find one of these chaos users?"

"Don't bother. He's most likely dead. Most don't live that long after sacrificing that much energy."

"Then why would someone do a thing like that?" Jiriaya asked.

"There's usually only one reason," said the toad gravely. "To make sure they don't fall into the wrong hands."

Jiraiya went back to taking notes, but not about girls anymore. "Listen to me, Fukusaku. My ex-comrade Orochimaru won't be far behind from these emeralds. Put the word out and alert everyone at Myokubozen. We need to gather the other six before that snake shows up."

"I take it this means you'll have to put your writing on hold?" Fukusaku asked.

"I'll figure out a way to balance everything," Jiraiya said, pocketing the emerald and started towards Konoha. "There's no way I can just halt the production for the new movie, either. Not after already picking actors from all over the Five Nations and beyond. These emeralds really know how to spoil a good plan."

"That, my young friend, is why they're called _Chaos _Emeralds," the old toad smiled.

* * *

Knuckles the Echidna stood at the edge of the Floating Island, staring out towards the horizon and up to the endless sky. He looked out not just with his eyes, but also with his mind.

The chaos emeralds were gone, he knew that much. To make matters worse, someone was coming to intrude on his sacred island.

For Knuckles, loud things always meant trouble for the Island. In this case, trouble came in the form of several military copters heavily thumping their way down to the ground. Looking up, Knuckles could already recognize some faces through the windows.

As soon as the helicopters touched the ground, soldiers in GUN uniform came pouring out, all armed heavily, and spreading out across the terrain.

Two different figures emerged from the last helicopter One had never stepped foot on the island before. The other had been here too many times to count.

The Commander of GUN, known well for his dominating authority and his mismatched eyes marched towards Knuckles. His right arm was tied in a sling, having broken it during Kyuubi's rampage in Station Square. At his side, walked Rouge the Bat, GUN's top secret agent.

Knuckles was comforted by the sight of Rouge. "You're back soon, Rouge. Shouldn't you be busy looking for the Akatsuki?"

"I'm workin' on it, Knuxie, but right now we need to talk to you."

"We know that Sonic and his team went down into Labyrinth Zone earlier," Rouge began. "Satelitte images showed us that Labyrinth Zone has been completely wiped off the map. We don't know who survived yet, but we do know one thing—"

"The chaos emeralds are disappeared," Knuckles finished.

"Exactly. That's why we decided we had to come here right away."

"Wait a sec!" Knuckles said suddenly. "I don't like where this conversation is going."

"We want you to give us the Master Emerald," The Commander said bluntly. "That's an order."

"The President has requested that we ally with all nations of the world to pool our resources together to combat the Akatsuki organization," Rouge explained. "That includes the Floating Island. As one of the most powerful artifacts in the known universe, we can put it to good use for our cause."

"You're absolutely right it's a powerful artifact," Knuckles replied with a glare. "All the more reason I'd be stupid to hand it over to you."

The Commander returned the echidna's glare with his own hard stare with his two mismatched colored eyes. "Like it or not, echidna, you don't get to keep to yourself anymore. We're not here to negotiate. That doesn't belong to you. That rock belongs to the world. You have a responsibility to your planet to cooperate with us and share your powers. If the next word you speak isn't 'yes…" he motioned to all his heavily armed soldiers.

Rouge grabbed hold of the echidna's arm, trying to lower his tension. "Knuxie, I'm not here because I love jewels. This isn't like all the other times," Rouge said. The usual seductive tone in her voice was completely absent. "This time, taking the M.E has nothing to do with money. We need its powers to protect the world from the worst group of terrorists Mobius has ever faced. Lives are at stake and we're not equipped to handle this by ourselves. We really need you. You can come with us. You can fight with us."

The Commander stared harshly with his one amber and the other blue eye. "You were present at Station Square. You saw what happened to the city, to my men. Things will get a whole lot worse if we don't do something about it. We don't know what lengths the Akatsuki will go to get what they want and we don't know when that fox demon will attack next."

"GUN agrees to give you full say regarding everything we do with the Emerald," Rouge continued. "There will be no tricks this time."

Knuckles glanced at Rouge, tired of looking at the Commander's messed up eyes, "Look, I just got back to my island a few minutes ago. I haven't even checked on the M.E. Give me a few minutes to think about it, all right?"

"Unacceptable," the Commander said sternly. "There's no time to waste. I demand you let me into your hidden shrine. I want to see this Master Emerald myself."

"Rouge can come. Everyone else must stay behind. When humans enter the Hidden Palace, only trouble follows." Knuckles thought bitterly of the time when Orochimaru broke into the shrine, putting the echidna through the worst kind of torture he's ever experienced, driving him to the brink of insanity all the while playing with the Master Emerald. He desecrated the shrine and made a mockery of everything being a Guardian stood for.

Rouge cracked a slight smile. "Hey, at least now we're getting somewhere," she turned to address the soldiers. "Sorry, boys. You heard Knuckles the Bouncer here."

"Hmph," the old commander folded his arms and snorted gruffly, but he gave the signal for his men to stand back. "Just don't waste my time."

Knuckles and Rouge left the humans behind and ventured underground towards the Hidden Palace. As they made their way through the narrow caverns towards the Master Emerald shrine, Knuckles noticed how different Rouge looked. He had never seen her this serious looking before. He thought it could be a trick, but he wasn't sure.

"Even if you don't want to give it to them, I think it's the best idea to take the M.E out of your shrine, anyway. It won't be safe from our enemies if it stays here," Rouge finally spoke up as they neared the shrine.

"Safe? There's no more secure place on Mobius than on the Floating Island's Hidden Palace under my watch," Knuckles said proudly.

"Maybe from normal thieves, but this place isn't exactly ninja proof. I remember what Orochimaru did to you."

"I was caught by surprise that time," Knuckles shot back. "I just need to double my efforts. Nothing's going to surprise me again."

Knuckles didn't see the hidden wire set near the ground, and when his foot stepped over it, the trap caught Knuckles completely by surprise. A set of kunai sprung out drove themselves deep into his ass.

Knuckles shouted out a set of expressions that had never before been uttered in the sacred Hidden Palace. The Echidna Guardian ancestors were most likely looking down at the scene, hanging their heads in shame. Or more likely laughing their own asses off.

Rouge stifled her own laugh. "Knuxie, I think your red ass is going to get a whole lot redder."

"Where did those come from!?" Knuckles snarled, yelling from the pain as he yanked the ninja knives out of his butt one by one.

"More importantly, are you going to go be okay?"

"Echidna hide is a lot tougher," Knuckles said. "If I was human, I might be dead. As dead as the person who set that trap up, anyway."

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. I hired a substitute Guardian while you were gone," Rouge said.

"A substitute?"

"I thought it was the most responsible thing to do. I didn't want to leave an important artifact like that unguarded. Honestly though, I didn't think he'd take the job so seriously."

Knuckles knew in advance that he wasn't going to like where this was going, but he had to ask anyway. "Just who did you hire?"

"So you came back," a rough mysterious sounding voice spoke from the shadows. "Took you long enough, Knuckles. I've been keeping your pet rock warm for you."

"So you set up that booby trap, Espio," Knuckles threw the bloody kunai towards the shadow. A purple arm reached out and expertly caught each kunai, twirling the handles' rings around his fingers.

"Indeed I did," Espio the Chameleon replied, calmly sitting and on top of the M.E, lotus style. "It's less guardian work for me if my traps do the job. Is that a problem for you?"

"You bet it is. If I wanted something sharp shoved up my ass, I could've just sat on your face!"

"You should be grateful that I improved the security around here. It shows I've taken the job seriously and put in the effort. That's the Chaotix Detective Agency's policy."

"I'll be grateful when you got off that rock and get out. I'm back and I'm taking over for good. You're not needed here."

Espio shrugged. "Suit yourself. So long as I get paid. But just so you know, Rouge told me that when she found out a ninja ripped you apart, she immediately thought of me and asked for my help. You might need me a lot more than you think, since I know the most about ninjas."

"Trust me. You don't know anything about these ninjas," Shadow the Hedgehog popped in with chaos control. It seemed that everybody and their dog had been teleporting all over the place, be it a poof of smoke or a flash of light. Knuckles didn't like it one bit.

"What do you want here, Shadow?" Knuckles grumbled, annoyed at the sight of yet another uninvited visitor.

"You should be able to answer me that," said Shadow, sounding equally annoyed. "Although I can't find out where the chaos emeralds went, I traced a thin trail of chaos energy that led me to this place. Any idea what that might be?"

"That could only mean that somebody used the Guiding Star Gem to teleport here. I gave it to Sonic in case he got into trouble. It's not as fast as chaos control so you got here before they did. Whoever activated the gem should be arriving any second."

"So who's coming?" Espio asked.

"Ask the Master Emerald. It always knows who's using one of those gems," Knuckles replied.

"How does one ask the Master Emerald?"

"It's what it sounds like. How come you don't know this? You've been guarding it for the last few days."

Espio just shook his head. "I didn't see a set of instructions anywhere."

"You don't need instructions. You just put your hand on it and ask it a question. It knows the answer to all kinds of things."

"Is this what you do for companionship? You really speak to the rock and ask it questions? Tell me, do you like to draw happy faces on your emerald, too?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Why would I want to spend time with anyone who smiles all day?"

"Both of you shut up," Shadow snapped. "Someone's coming."

Soon, the only sound in the cavern was the soft hum of the Master Emerald. A bright green light burst forth. It was a common sight for Knuckles to see, but soon the familiar green light shifted to a dark blood red that shrouded the Hidden Palace. Flames rose from the Emerald and took the ghostly shape of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. It growled and gnashed its fiery teeth, spreading out its demonic chakra. Nine bolts of swirling chakra whipped around the air viciously, threatening to send the ceiling crashing down.

"It's the Demon Fox!" Rouge cried, pulling out her gun. She didn't know what use that was going to do against the demonic apparition, but it made her feel a lot better. Shadow likewise powered up a chaos spear.

In the center of the violent chakra, Tails appeared, standing on top the Emerald. There was the shadowy form of someone else behind him. Rouge could have sworn she saw the hint of an amused smile pass over the fox boy's face. By raising his arm, all the demonic energy in the shrine flowed back into Tails' body.

"Hi…" Tails gave a wave, looking as if nothing happened. "Look, Hinata. We made it. The thing worked. We're at the Hidden Palace!"

"Don't you 'hi' me. What happened out there, Tails?" Knuckles asked. "Where's everybody else?"

"Sonic's gone," Tails said quickly. "Taken by Orochimaru. He sacrificed his power to scatter the emeralds so the snake guy couldn't have them. All the Konoha shinobi went through there, too. I was gonna follow them, but Akatsuki interfered and I was sorta dead half the time. It all happened really fast."

"You were 'sorta dead half the time?' What exactly does that mean?" asked Espio.

"What it sounds like, I guess," Tails shrugged. "I went to Hell and stuff, too."

Espio's eyes were uncharacteristically wide. "Hell? You actually went to Hell? A nice guy like you?"

"Yeah, but I was alive at the time. I think I'm supposed to be a king down there or somebody important, anyway. I told them I wasn't ready yet for something like that. By the way," Tails turned to Hinata. "They like you down there too, Hinata. They said they want you to come back."

Knuckles blinked. "The more you talk, the more confused I get! Start making sense, Tails!"

"I'd love to talk more about all that and confuse you some more, but now I gotta find Sonic. Time to get straight to work and build a machine that can open up a dimensional vortex gate thingy and go to the ninja world."

Espio nodded slowly. "How do you plan on pulling that off?"

Tails opened his mouth, but froze with nothing to say. "…I have no idea. I need to go back to my lab and work on this right away."

The ceiling above blew apart, sending shards of crystal spraying everywhere. Through a large hole in the ceiling, Mecha Kyuubi poked his mechanical head through the hold.

"**Ah, there you are, Tails. You called?"**

"Yeah. Take Hinata and me back home to the Mystic Ruins."

Mecha Kyuubi lifted Tails and Hinata onto his back and rocketed upwards through the hole all the way out into the open sky.

"Sure, just go ahead and blow a huge hole in my palace!" Knuckles shook his fist furiously. "I don't mind!"

"Clearly, I've been missing out on way too much by just sitting around here with your pet rock. I've got a ton of catching up to do. Have a good day," Espio said. Without another word, he vanished into thin air.

"Espio had the right idea," Knuckles turned to the others. "All of you need to get out. I need to be alone now. I need fix this ceiling and then talk to my Emerald."

"Can't I at least stay and listen to what it has to say?" Rouge asked.

"No. You can go back to your commander and tell him that I'm not giving him anything until I can make some sense of what's happening here."

Rouge could tell there was no use arguing. Knuckles' word was final. She couldn't really blame him for being so anxious. This was the only emerald left. The others were now on a different world. And who knew what strange creatures were handling them.

* * *

Tonton put her snout the to the red emerald and sniffed it before a gathering of Tsunade and several Konoha ninja in the Hokage's Tower. Most of the jounin and ANBU had been brought in to see what Jiraiya had dropped off on Tsunade's desk in the middle of the night. Yuuhi Kurenai was the first to head over when she heard the announcement. She was motivated much less about some magic gem than she was about Hinata being stranded in the wrong dimension. Sarutobi Asuma met Kurenai on the way after grabbing a fresh pack of cigarettes. His main interest in going was to see how the mission went with his student, Shikamaru as the leader who was summoned to report on everything that had happened.

"Bui," the pig nodded to Tsunade.

"That confirms it," Tsunade said. "There's no question anymore. This is a genuine Chaos Emerald."

Shikamaru quirked an eyebrow. "That's how you can tell for sure. Because the pig sniffed it?"

Tonton turned up her nose and snorted.

"Animals have a deep connection to the chaos emeralds that we humans lack," Tsunade explained. "These Mobian type of animals are the same thing. That's why you saw a hedgehog turn into a godlike glowing super being. They have a natural affinity for that. What matters for us, however, is that our animals are our best bet for finding the whole set. That's why we'll be using them to help us. As you all know, it took a lot of work and sacrifice for Shikamaru's team to get hold of just this one emerald. There are six more out there and we have to move fast to collect them all."

Sarutobi Asuma took a deep drag from his cigarette. He had hoped that Shikamaru's return meant that the mission was over, but now it seemed like it was just beginning. "Hmm, that's a big rock. Looks like it could be made into one hell of an engagement ring," he muttered to himself.

Kurenia shot him a funny look. "Did you say something, Asuma?"

"Uh...n-nothing," Asuma stammered. He was grateful for the wisps of cigarette smoke that helped to hide his blushing face. "I'm just relieved to see that nobody was killed by Akatsuki. At least we won't have to worry about them for now."

Shikamaru frowned as he rubbed his shoulder wound. Just the memory of it brought the pain back. "Things would've worked out in a much less troublesome way if Akatsuki hadn't interfered. They weren't even looking for the Chaos Emeralds. They just wanted to capture a jinchuuriki they found on Mobius."

Tsunade nodded faintly. "Yes. I heard about that. I never imagined that a bijuu could live in two hosts at once. A Kyuubi jinchuuriki at that. One of the reasons I wanted Naruto to go was because I thought the Akatsuki wouldn't look for him there."

"Orochimaru seemed to know a lot about Mobius and the chaos emeralds. He might have shared that information with the Akatsuki when he was a member of that organization. They didn't look too happy to hear what Oro was up to. They must've picked that time to go for the dual purpose of killing him and taking the opportunity to capture the jinchuuriki."

"According to Jiraiya's input, they're almost done," said Tsunade. "Out of the nine, there are only two left before their plan to catch all the bijuu is complete. It would make matters worse if they catch that kitsune. Do you know what happened to him?"

"I don't know. Itachi came close to capturing him, but I think he managed to escape."

"Let's hope his luck holds out because we can't do much to help him right now, or Hinata for that matter," she motioned to Kurenai. "Our main priority at this time is to search for those emeralds."

"At the very least, we don't have to worry about Akatsuki showing up here. Even though we had many members on our team, they crushed us so easily in the end," said Shikamaru.

"Still, your mission wasn't a failure. No one expected you to be able to fight any of the Akatsuki. The goal was to keep Orochimaru away from the chaos emeralds and in that, we succeeded. It'll be easier to manage things now that all the chaos emeralds are spread out throughout the Five Nations."

"That was Sonic's doing by the way," Shikamaru added.

"Add our next goal is to find him. Jiraiya will keep us updated on that."

"Anything else you need me to do?" Shikamaru asked.

"I'm sure a lazy fool like you would agree that you've done enough work to last a lifetime, Shikamaru," Asuma said, leaning over the tower window, blowing some smoke into the air. "Time for you to take it easy, I'd say."

"If you want to so something, you know the Kazekage wishes to go back to Suna. You can escort him out of the village," Kurenai offered.

"Gaara and Temari, huh? All right. I'll guess I'll go see them off," Shikamaru stuck his hands in his pockets and slunk off.

When Shikamaru disappeared down the hall, Tsuande began to address the jounin. "I need to talk about what every jounin's responsibility at this time is. Shizune, you first."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Shizune, her assistant and Tonton's keeper replied.

"Take Tonton and tell Kakashi to summon his ninja dogs, then contact the Inuzuka clan. We need anything with a sharp nose to spread out and scour the Five Nations. We're going to find these chaos emeralds before anyone else does. Kurenai…"

Tsunade thumbed through the paperwork form Shikamaru's report. "Hinata is gone. What's happening with the other two members of the team?"

"They are unavailable," said Kurenai. "Shino's entire colony of bugs has been destroyed. He's now leaving the village to find himself a new one. It should take him a few weeks."

"And what about Kiba?"

"The wolves took him into the forest. He's determined to get stronger. He'll be learning techniques that have never before been seen by man."

Asuma chuckled. "So that explains why I saw him earlier running naked through the woods with Akamaru and a pack of wolves."

"Such is the way of the Inuzuka clan," Kurenai smiled.

"Then since you're team is inactive and you're our reconnaissance expert, I want you to lead the search for the chaos emeralds," Tsunade ordered. "Send spies to set up posts near all the major villages. If anything suspicious is found anywhere in these countries, I want to know about it right away. If someone sees even a single sparkle, I want to be notified."

"I guess we'll have to postpone that movie date for another time," Asuma whispered into Kurenai's ear. "Looks like we're all going to be pretty busy for awhile. And what should I be doing, Hokage-sama?" he turned to ask the Godaime.

"You're job is to take care of the Konoha's defense. We can't leave ourselves open to attack at a time like this."

"I'm sending this emerald down to the Research Department. I'll inform everyone when we learn anything new. You're dismissed."

Tsunade waited for everyone to exit her office. When they were gone, she let out an exhausted sigh and sunk back into her chair. The enormous mountain of paperwork on her desk only made her eyelids grow heavy.

"Man, I'm glad I didn't take your job," said a voice from outside her window.

Tsunade didn't even bother to look out the window to see who it was. "You know you don't have to hang around outside all the time. You're allowed to come in."

"No need. I was leaving anyway," Jiraiya said, hopping off the wall and onto his toad. "I'm going now to see what I can find about Orochimaru. We'll see if I can find out where he's keeping Sonic the Hedgehog."

At that, Tsunade reached below her desk and took out her secret sake supply and filled her saucer.

"Hey, now," Jiraiya protested. "Isn't there a rule against Hokages doing that?"

She ignored him and gulped a saucer full down. "I just still can't believe Orochimaru's doing this. What do you think he wants?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "Normal people have logical motives, but Orochimaru's insane schemes make sense to him alone," his eyes shifted towards the desk. "Is that Shikamaru's report over there?"

"Along with Yamato's ANBU report. They tell us everything that transpired on Mobius."

"Can I see?" Jiraiya flipped through the pages, quickly scanning over the events that occurred on Mobius, along with detailed profiles of the Mobians they met and their abilities, but he found himself glued to one page in particular.

"What have we here? They met a fox with two tails that has the Kyuubi's powers? What the hell's going on on that crazy planet?"

"It's all real," said Tsunade, taking another sip. "Just ask anyone else who went there. Sonic the Hedgehog has known him the longest. He's probably the best place to get answers from."

"I will," Jiraiya rolled up the papers and threw it into his frog's mouth for safekeeping, "but first I have some questions for Naruto."

"How do you plan on finding Sonic?"

Jiraiya chuckled. "I have my ways. For some reason, a lot of information comes up from the most gorgeous women."

Tsunade resisted the urge to throw the ceramic bottle at her old teammate's face. "Oh, go back to your smelly old frog swamp, you horny old toad."

"Since I've got a harem of hot chicks mud wrestling there, I'll be glad to," he replied.

"One more thing," Jiraiya said with is back turned. "Keep an eye on Danzou. Especially now. Under no circumstances should he be allowed to touch the chaos emeralds."

"He's been away from the village for the past few days," Tsunade said. "I don't know what that ancient mummy is up to."

"Then make sure you do," Jiraiya warned, then he and his toad were gone in a cloud of smoke, a cloud that resembled a sexy woman with huge knockers.

When the smoke cleared and the toad hermit was gone, Tsunade returned to stare at her desk, back to reminiscing. "You'll never change, will you? Neither will you...Orochimaru."

* * *

The sun rose to its zenith in the sky and beamed down its rays straight through Tails' bedroom window. Tails lay curled up under the covers with only his twin furry appendages sticking out, hanging over the bead. Tails poked his head out of from under the blanket and squinted up at the noon sky.

"It's late. How long have I been sleeping?" As Tails rolled out of bed, he felt the rustling of many papers and found a whole pile of blueprints scattered on his bed and around his room. He sifted through the pile, trying to figure out how they were supposed to be organized. Each page showed the designs of super advanced machinery along with insanely long and complex calculations on the margins. One page showed a drawing of the Master Emerald. Another page showed the Sharingan and a third showed the Mangekyou Sharingan.

"I must've spent the whole night working on these," Tails scratched his head in confusion, "it's in my handwriting, but I don't remember doing any of it. They must be designs for that dimensional vortex gate thingy. I'm not sure I even understand half the things I did."

As he sat there trying to figure those blueprints out, Tails' ears perked up to the sound of knocking coming from the front door.

"I wonder who that is."

"I'm coming," Tails bounded to the door. As soon as he clicked open the lock, the door flew open, almost bashing Tails in the face. Amy came barging in.

"Tails! Is it true you've got an invention that can take us to Sonic?"

"Is that what all these things are? I can't understand a single thing you've drawn here. How long is it going to take to finish this contraption?"

"I dunno," Tails said, still a little groggy. "Days, weeks, maybe longer."

"I can't wait that long! Who knows what horrible things are happening to Sonic right now? What are we gonna do about it?" Amy grabbed onto Tails' shoulders and shook him so hard, he thought his tails would fall off.

"T-Take it easy, Amy-y-y-y-y-y," Tails pleaded. "I'm workin' on building it. It is rocket science, after all. You can't rush it."

A hand reached out and pinched Amy's neck, activating a pressure point, that sent the pink hedgehog down on the floor in a slump. Tails shook his dizzy head and then saw Espio standing before him.

"Espio? You didn't have to do it like that," Tails said. "Amy wasn't being so bad."

"She was bad enough for me," Espio said in a gruff voice. "Now's not the time for anyone to be acting hysterical. We've got a lot of work to do."

Tails-kun, who's there?" Hinata came down to check to see what was going on. Standing at the door she saw the purple chameleon from yesterday and with him was a crocodile and a bee. "Are these your friends?"

"Yeah, these guys are—"

"Vector the Crocodile. I'm the leader."

"Espio the Chameleon. I'm the ninja."

"Charmy Bee! I'm the forensics expert."

"Chaotix Detective Agency at your service!" the three said in unison.

"What brings you guys down here?" Tails asked.

"We're working on the Akatsuki investigation," Vector said. "We know all about the fox demon inside you and that they've been looking for you, so we came to help you out."

"We wanted to expand to do more than just find missing objects and looking for lost people, so we all took on some hardcore detective training," Charmy said. "Now we handle big time bad guys, crime scene investigation, international conspiracies, all those things."

"We were bound to take this case on anyway. While Espio went on substitute emerald guarding, Charmy and I took on this case to bust this drug dealer. You ever see this shady looking guy before?" Vector held out a photo depicting a mysterious hooded figure. One glance and right away, Hinata knew who it was.

"That's Shino. He's my teammate," Hinata said. "He's not a drug dealer."

"Oh, I forgot. This is Hyuuga Hinata," Tails said. "She's a ninja. Her eyes lets her see through stuff so she could see you even if you were invisible."

"You're from the same world as the Akatsuki, aren't you?" Vector asked.

"Ano, yes," Hinata politely answered the crocodile.

"Great. That could be very helpful. It sure is nice of you to baby sit Tails what with Sonic gone and everything."

"She's not my babysitter," Tails muttered. "I don't need any of that stuff."

"An organization of criminal ninjas are coming after you. I'd say you need all the help you can get," Vector stabbed his finger at the fox. "They broke into your workshop already. Speaking of which, mind if we take a look around?"

"Uh sure. Go ahead."

As the Chaotix started rummaging through the workshop, Espio stayed to ask Hinata more questions.

"So you're eyes can see things that are invisible? What else can they do?"

"Ano, I can see through things, too."

"X-Ray Vision, huh? Very impressive power."

"She's also a near perfect markswoman," another voice said.

Espio could tell by the flash of light who had just appeared behind him. "I knew it wouldn't be long before you showed up again."

"Hey, Shadow," Tails said warmly. "What's up? Are you here to come with us to Konoha and save Sonic, too?"

Shadow sneered. The very idea of coming to save Sonic's life tasted lousy in his mouth. "I could care less about what happens to that idiotic faker. I've got my own personal reasons for going."

"Like what?"

"I'm not about to let a dirty little fox brat go running around a strange world of ninjas all alone. You'll be an embarrassment to our entire planet. That's enough reason for me to go."

Tails scratched the back of his head. He knew Shadow was just being weird and that wasn't the real reason. He had to have something better than that on his mind.

"Tails," Vector interrupted his thoughts from the kitchen. "Are you planning on throwing another one of your sexy parties?"

"Not at the moment…Why?"

"I'm looking around your kitchen and I'm just wondering what you're doing with a lifetime supply of sake."

"Huh? I have a lifetime supply of what?"

Vector was right. Inside Tails' fridge and in every cupboard, everything in the kitchen was filled to the brim with ceramic bottles of sake.

Tails mouth hung open. "None of this was here last night, That's so crazy…"

"This case is getting more interesting by the second," Espio muttered. "Maybe it was a good idea to take it after all."

"It's uncommon to just randomly win a lifetime supply of sake," Vector observed. "We must get to the bottom of this. This could be an important key to something."

"Found a clue!" Charmy yelled excitedly. "It's a note left on one of the bottles."

"What does it say?"

Charmy yanked the note off and read it aloud.

_The drinks are on me_

_Throw some parties with sexy girls_

_Keeps the beast away_

-A Friend

"What's your, analysis, Charmy?" Espio asked.

"It's a haiku."

"Okay, so what does it mean?" Vector demanded.

"Hmm, _Keeps the beast away…_it must be talking about the Kyuubi," Tails suggested. "It means that if I drink this stuff, it'll keep me in a good mood and I won't turn into the Kyuubi."

Espio's eyes grew suspicious. "That's a weird way to get ward off evil spirits. Who exactly is this friend of yours?"

"I have no idea, but it might actually work," Tails said as he uncorked a bottle and tilted it over his mouth.

"Not so fast," Vector snatched the bottle out of the kit's hand. "I don't think that's such a good idea…you should warm the sake up first."

"That looks good. Can I have some?" Charmy asked.

"Do you have a malevolent demon spirit living inside you that when released could cover the land in darkness?"

"Last I checked I didn't," Charmy replied

"Then you don't get."

"Aww…" the bee's antennas drooped.

"Instead, why don't you make yourself useful and find some more clues."

"By the way, Tails," Vector added, "since the Akatsuki know where you live, it's not safe for you to stay here. You should find a place to lie low for awhile 'till this mess blows over."

"So should we," Charmy added. "Those guys aren't gonna be too happy when they find out we're looking or them."

"No problem," Tails smiled brightly. "I already got a place like that. We'll go to the Kitsune Cave."

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "The what cave?"

"My basement. It's actually an underground workshop where I build a lot of my secret inventions and I store all my other planes. No one else in the world knows about it, except for Sonic It's a big place, going through all the caves in the Mystic Ruins. You guys can do your investigation work there if you want. It can be like our secret base. I got tons of high tech stuff down there. Big computers and everything."

"A computer room!" Vector exclaimed. "That's exactly the kind of place we're looking for!"

"Yeah! It's awesome," Tails agreed as he chugged down his heated sake bottle.

"What's your alcohol tolerance level like, Tails?" Shadow asked.

"Who me? I can handle anything," Tails assured with a smile, then a small hiccup. "Now where's that entrance again? Oh yeah, it's through this door."

The others watched nervously as Tails demonstrated that he had already lost the ability to walk in a straight line. Tails flung open the door that revealed a staircase leading to the cellar. "The caves are down there, but you'll need me to show you the way. I just need to find a little light…" Tails fumbled for the light switch, missed, and tripped down the stairs. The others winced as they heard him tumble down into the darkness.

* * *

The first thing Lee did after returning to Konoha was search for his sensei. The second Gai-sensei heard that his students had returned, he immediately rushed to find them. Lee and Gai both ended up meeting each other at the outskirts of the village by the beach. The sun was in the middle of setting into the sea and the tide brought the waves crashing against rocky cliffs. Tragic music started to play. When Lee and Gai came upon each other, they stopped to gaze at the majestic sunset, and then they embraced. Tears started to flow.

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

They continued their master/student exchange until a rough voice broke out, ruining the moment and drowning out the sappy music.

"So you're the queers that have been stealing my scenery." Jiraiya roared. "And my sound system."

He summoned two of his toads to grab the background scenery of the majestic sunset and haul it off, along with all the other studio equipment they stole.

"I can't allow you morons to interfere with production anymore. You're messing up everything."

"Ah, Jiraiya-sama," Gai greeted with a massive sparkling smile. "I know that Kakashi awaits your next film with great anticipation. When will it be released?"

"We were planning on next summer, but I have to put my screenplay on hold because of this Chaos Emerald Crisis. A shame too, my research was starting to go so well."

"Aha! I see the stumbling blocks of youth affect even old ones like yourself."

"Don't call me old," Jiraiya growled.

"Yes, well perhaps when this is all over you would like to take a look at my own script that I dream to one day produce."

"_Heaven have mercy. I do not want to know what kind of stories come out of this man's head."_

"It is a timeless tale about two young men in the springtime of youth who—"

"Enough!" Jiraiya halted. "There will be time for that later. I'm busy now and I need your help."

"Of course," Gai said, "but first let me finish with my apprentice. Lee!"

"Yes, Gai-sensei!"

"I have just the antidote to cure you of your feelings of despair and failure. Take my advice and next time you will surely defeat this mysterious "Kisame" person. Are you ready to hear my wise teaching?"

"Yosh! My ears burn with eagerness!, Gai-sensei! Please reveal your wisdom to me!"

"You must perform 800 laps around Konoha. This time, you will bend both legs behind your head and tie them in a knot and run on your hands."

"Like a pretzel," Jiriaya muttered. "We didn't have these outrageous methods in my day."

"But that's not all," Gai continued. "Meanwhile, you shall swish this bottle of Listerine inside your mouth!" Gai handed his student a full bottle of green mouthwash.

"_How many useless items does he carry around with him?" _it boggled Jiraiya's mind to think about it.

"Yes, Gai-sensei!" Lee did as his master said and began his training.

"My mouth is burning, Gai-sensei!" Lee wailed in the distance.

"Those are the arctic flames of youth cleansing your soul, my young pupil. Embrace them and your teeth shall sparkle like the sun on a spring day!" When Lee was gone, Gai turned back to the sannin. "As you can see, my training regimen can turn the tide against the village's greatest threats."

"The only real threat to our village is you and your sense of style," Jiraiya grumbled, "but I didn't come to deal with that. Since I know that you're the kind of guy who has his nose in everybody's business—"

"Indeed I am!" Gai announced proudly.

"So have you seen Naruto? I must speak to him."

"Ah! When I saw Naruto-kun, he was sitting atop the Hokage monument. A forlorn expression sat on his face. I suggest you make haste to reignite his youthful passion."

"I heard he wasn't in a good mood," Jiraiya said. "That's not a problem. I know how to cheer him up."

* * *

Naruto sat perched on top of Konoha's Hokage Monument on top of the Yondaime's head where he spent more than half the day. It was one of the most still days the hyperactive ninja had ever lived. His chest was fully bandaged up and he let his jacket drape over his shoulders. He just sat there, gazing down at the village and up at the sun. Eventually, he pulled out a picture from his pocket

_After defeating Deidara in battle, Kakashi sent for Naruto and the others to meet him at Central City. He knew he had a lot of explaining to do after mysteriously disappearing earlier that day. He was going to tell them everything, until _

"_All right, where are the guys that saved Station Square. The paper wants a picture of you."_

_In waddled a chubby old man carrying a load of camera equipment. He carried over his shoulder a real old school camera, with a curtain in the back and everything. Naruto recognized him as that same grumpy old photographer that took his ninja registration photo and Team 7's group picture._

_It took some time to round up more than twenty people and their dog, but eventually, they managed to gather everyone onto the roof so that they could do the photo with Station Square visible in the background._

"_Wait! Tails isn't here!" Naruto protested. "You're not gonna take the picture without him, are you?"_

"_It'll take him awhile to get here," Sonic said. "He was really out of it when I brought him in. Tails drank like an animal."_

"_That's okay, Sonic. We can have fun while we're waiting," Amy leapt on top of her hero, trapping him in a fierce, chocking hug. _

_Sonic let out a wheezing cry. "Somebody just get Tails her fast!"_

"_I'm here. Don't start without me!" Tails ran up, huffing He took a spot in front in between Sonic and Naruto._

"_Fine," the old man grumbled impatiently. "Lets—"_

"_Wait!" Naruto cried again. "Hinata! You're supposed to be in the picture. Get over here!"_

_Hinata came to watch, but stayed at the sides, pushing her fingers together nervously. "A-ano, I shouldn't be there, Naruto-kun. I didn't do anything important."_

"_That's not what I heard. Shadow said you did something so insane you'd have to be brain dead to try it, which means whatever you did must've been freakin' awesome, so get in!"_

_Knowing that she was just going to say "no," Naruto marched right up in front of Hinata, hooked his arm around her and pulled her in line. He held her close and tight to make sure she wouldn't disappear. _

"_Yosh! We're ready now, old man!" Naruto shouted and threw up the "V" for victory sign, but then he glanced at Hinata. "You're not smiling, Hinata. You look more like you're having trouble breathing."_

"_What an annoying group," the camera guy thought. "All right. Let's get this over with. You, get your head out of that book. Sonic, try not to gag so much. You, the short one, stand up straight and look ahead."_

_Naruto's eyes shifted downward and saw Tails sleeping standing up, eyes closed, a snot bubble blew in and out of his nose._

"_Wake the hell up!" Naruto shouted. Tails' bubble popped and his eyes flashed open suddenly._

"_Huh?" Tails glanced up and saw Naruto scowling down at him. "Oh, sorry. I'm just so out of it, I can barely stand."_

_Naruto lifted the kitsune up and sat him on his shoulder. "There. Is that better, buddy?" _

"_I still feel a little weird. I don't think I can keep a straight face," he groaned._

"_So? Normal faces are boring. Make whatever kind of face you want," Naruto demonstrated by sticking his tongue out at the camera._

_Tails did the same, forming a big goofy smile and throwing his tongue way out._

"_If that's what these losers want, then fine," the camera guy clicked the shutter._

"Ah, there you are, Naruto?"

"Ero-sennin?" Naruto looked behind to see his perverted sensei heading towards him, along with a young, beautiful blonde at his side. Whoever she was, she was definitely not from around here. Not with that strange gothic loita dress she wore.

"Naruto, meet Misa," Ero-sennin introduced the blonde. "She's a famous actress. She'll be taking the lead role for my upcoming movie."

"Hello, Naruto-kun. Jiraiya-sama said you were upset so I came to cheer you up," Misa said in a very bubbly, bouncy voice. He could easily see her black panties underneath her tiny skirt.

"I just had a great idea," said Jiraiya. "Naruto, doesn't Misa look a lot like your sexy no jutsu version? Why don't you transform into your Naruko self and the two of you can have a little fun," a sleazy smile formed around Ero-sennin's face.

Naruto shrugged and without a word, turned back to watch the sunset. He didn't want to think about perverted things now.

"Now's no time to be giving anyone the cold shoulder, Naruto. Misa's never acted in a movie quite like this before so she's a bit nervous. Maybe you'd like to show her around the village. Haven't you always dreamed of dating a movie star?"

"Not now," Naruto said glumly.

"This is worse than I thought," Jiraiya muttered to himself. "Eh, Misa, why don't you go and find Kakashi and give him your autograph. He's a huge fan, you know."

"Okay, Jiraiya-sama!" she nodded and ran down the mountain path.

Jiraiya wiped away the blood coming down his nose as he watched Misa run off. "I told her that she should get in character as much as possible," he said to Naruto. "Kakashi's going to have a lot of fun with her. She's not the smartest girl in the world, but man, can she act. She might have some hidden shinobi talents, too. I should think about training her."

"Ero-sennin, why are you telling me all this?" Naruto asked in an impatient tone.

When Misa was out of sight, Jiraiya's expression grew serious. "Because that's what I wanted to really talk about. Your training. I can tell you got beaten up pretty badly. We need to discuss what went wrong and where we should go from here."

"That's easy. My jutsus weren't enough. Akatsuki copied my Rasengan and used it against me."

"You shouldn't be surprised by anything from Akatsuki," Jiraiya said. "When my apprentice became Hokage, his fame drew a lot of attention from other nations. Eventually, the Mizukage sent spies to learn the Yondaime's secrets and transmit that knowledge to the Mist village. That kind of knowledge could have led to them developing our jutsus like the Rasengan for themselves. Remember, I still haven't found out a thing about their leader. Who knows what kind of resources they have?"

"All that time spent training wasn't enough. Nothing's changed. Orochimaru got away. Akatsuki destroyed us. I haven't kept my promise to Sakura-chan. Now she's in the hospital because Sasuke almost slit her throat."

Jiraiya swiped the picture from Naruto's hand and studied it carefully. "So this is that kitsune I've been hearing about? Cute kid. You can tell there's a lot of life in those eyes. You guys look close on this picture. No one would think you met that day."

Naruto started to smile a little. "It was a long day. It's hard to explain, but I feel like I've known him my whole life. I taught him some jutsus and you wouldn't believe how fast he got them. He got Kage Bunshin down faster than I could, anyway. I was hoping I could Tails back with me and teach him other things, too."

"This is a great thing, Naruto. You've finally gotten something on your mind other than Sasuke. Is it true that you've finally put aside trying to bring him back?"

Naruto shook his head. "I don't know. I did say that, I guess. Everytime I see him, things only get worse and he gets closer to killing us. I just don't understand him."

"Of course you don't. Uchiha Sasuke was always a stuck up prick, an emotional time bomb, obsessive, and I question his sexual orientation To be fair, you're talking about a guy who watched his family die in front of him, with the person he trusted most on the world as the culprit. The most troublesome thing is, nobody knows why he did it. That creates some serious complicated psychological problems. It can't get much worse than that? Did you really think that the best solution to him running away was to beat the snot out of him and drag him back?

"But he was different when we were together," Naruto said. "He wasn't always like that."

"That's what I used to say about Orochimaru. It was the same story with me and Orochimaru, practically word for word. I finally realized that I would never understand him. I don't understand what he's doing now, why he captured Sonic the Hedgehog, or what he wants with those chaos emeralds. At first, I thought he wanted to bring his parents back from the dead, but now, something else is driving him. Go ask Tsunade. We were all on the same team. She'll tell you she doesn't have a clue. Thinking about him makes her get drunk. She'll also tell you that she can't waste any energy trying to figure this out while she's the Hokage. You see where I'm going with this?"

"You're saying I can't save Sasuke while I'm trying to be Hokage. That's funny. Sasuke told me the same thing. I told him that I believed the exact the opposite."

"You can believe whatever you want. I'm not enough of a wise man to whether Sasuke can be brought back or not. All I'm saying is that you've got your work cut out for you. One thing is clear to me. Sasuke doesn't just want revenge anymore. He might tell you that, but at this point, he's being consumed by something much worse, just like Orochimaru. I promise you that even if he kills Itachi, he'll just end up even more screwed up. He's just a sick, confused kid with way too much firepower. People like him, like Orochimaru, don't really want anything at all. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

"So what should I do?" Naruto asked.

"If you want to continue after him, go ahead, but if you want my advice, you're not gonna get through to him and you will never understand him until you understand yourself first."

"That sounds hard."

"Yeah, that's true. I was never good at this thing, either. You have to really figure out a lot. Like do you really understand this bond you supposedly have with Sasuke? Do you honestly know why you want to bring back a guy that tried to kill you and your friends more than once? I swear you'll get your balls sliced off next time you see him. Have you thought about what it would mean to have him back in our village? Why exactly would you want a guy like this back in the first place? I heard it's because he was the first person to acknowledge you—"

"No. It wasn't him," Naruto interrupted. "The first person to acknowledge me was Hinata."

"Who's that?"

"You don't know? She's from the main Hyuuga branch. She's Neji's cousin."

"I know who she is. I just don't know who she is to you. In all the time we spent training, never once have you mentioned that name. Sakura's name I heard maybe a thousand times, but Hinata's, zero."

"That's because I've been an idiot," said Naruto.

"No. It just shows that even thought you're good at getting through to people, there's still a lot you don't understand about some people, as well yourself," said Jiraiya. "Maybe you needed to understand the Kyuubi, too. He's not a simple beast. Not many people get the chance to live with a high demon lord."

"He's not with me, anymore. I can't talk to him anymore."

"I think a lot of the answers you need lie with this guy," Jiraiya tapped his finger directly on Tails' face. "It's clear to me that this is the kind of bond you need to hold onto. The next time you see Tails, I want you bring him to me. There are some new things I have to teach you, but it can only be done when you two are together."

"How do I get back to Mobius?"

"Don't worry about that. Tails will most likely be coming here. Either Akatsuki will catch him and bring him back or better yet, he'll find a way here on his own. Sonic's his best friend or something, isn't he?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. They're like brothers. They're called the Unbreakable Bond."

"Then he'll do whatever it takes to find Sonic. He won't be giving up anytime soon. Just have faith in him and wait. You both might as well take your time. The kind of training I have in mind is deadly as anything. You'll need to prepare yourself. One minute of what we're going to do will make our entire two and half years before look like a complete joke. Come to think of it, I'd better prepare myself, too. If not, we'll all just die."

"What should I do to get ready? I'll do whatever I have to!"

"Hmm…well, you're upset because your enemies know Rasangen now, so your only answer is to increase your amount of known jutsus. The Kazekage is leaving the village soon. Go with him before its too late. You can get his permission to see their secret scroll of forbidden jutsus. These are things there nobody in Konoha, not even the Hokages have ever seen. If you can read it, you will find the techniques that you discover the true essence of the Wind Country itself. Those kinjutsus will maximize the potential of your wind nature. You can bet that learning those techniques won't be easy, either, but I'm tired of talking about such heavy stuff. I have to make sure my movie comes together well. If it's successful, it will forever revolutionize the shinobi world."

"You mean that Icha Icha movie? That's gonna be so boring," Naruto groaned.

"It's not simply based on one of my books," said Jiraiya. "It's an original story that will touch upon the essence of all my works. If there's a story I have to tell before I die, it will be this one. It will be a powerful tale of love and passion that will reach deep into everyone' s hearts and it will usher in a new age of peace. You will see."

"But it's a stupid porno…"

"Baka! You couldn't be more wrong! It's going to be the Ultimate Porno!"

"Hmph! I'm not convinced. Kakashi's the only guy who's going to see it."

Jiraiya laughed out loud and smacked Naruto across the head. "You're a real stubborn brat. You always have been. It's worthless trying to convince you of anything. This is just something you'll have to see for yourself.

"One last thing I want to say. I've traveled all over the world. I've seen a lot of weird and interesting people. I met a lot of enemies and I trained a lot of students. The Yondaime was the most famous, but there were a lot more. Not all of them turned out so good. I'm mentioning this because it looks like you're ultimately going to be Tails' sensei, just like I was to you, and the Third was to me. It happened with my master and Orochimaru, and I also heard some disturbing rumors about some of my old pupils. I heard they died, but I'd bet against it. There's one kid in particular that I'm worried about. He had this crazy power, but he suffered a lot for it. Just try to understand that just like it can happen with a teammate, it can happen with a student and that can hurt a whole lot more. From what I heard, Miles Prower's past isn't a happy one, and his future looks complicated. Just make sure you know what you're dealing with."

"That won't happen, Ero-sennin," Naruto said determinately. "Nothing's gonna happen to Tails. You're the one who just said to have faith in him."

Jiraiya shrugged. "I've said everything I wanted to say. I'm leaving too to get some information on Orochimaru and these chaos emeralds. If I learn anything on Sonic the Hedgehog, I'll let you know. Oh, and try not to worry about Hinata. I'm sure that wherever she is, she's training hard to get a lot stronger."

* * *

Hinata whipped out the gun with lightning fast reflexes and opened fire, scoring perfect shots in the heads of the Akatsuki dummies that Tails built. She made a clean shot right through Itachi's eye. Another shot blew Deidara's head off with a hit to his forehead.

"Well done," Shadow, Hinata's new sensei in firearms complemented.

"Thank you very much, Shadow-kun," Hinata bowed.

Tails' underground base was the perfect training ground for Shadow and Hinata's purposes. They had all the equipment they needed. A fully stocked armory of advanced weapons, the fastest computers to ever grace Mobius. The Chaotix were especially happy in their new hi-tech surroundings. It was a big step up from their rickety old shack that was their old headquarters.

While he worked on optimizing all his machines, Tails refrained from drinking his sake. He had a feeling it wouldn't be very helpful when working with lots of machinery. And besides, he was in his best mood when inventing things. Not today, though. He was paying attention to the updates in the Chaotix's Akatsuki investigation and so far, it sounded like they were going no where. At this rate, Tails guessed that he would just have to wait for them to come to him, which probably wouldn't take a long time. But what he really wanted was to find out who was behind this. There was nothing worse than some mystery villain hiding out there somewhere, pulling all the strings. Almost as badly as he wanted to find Sonic, Tails wanted to find out who was hiding in the shadows of Akatsuki?

"We've been in contact with Rouge and we've discussed the matter of the Akatsuki," Espio said. "From what we know, the chance of locating their hideout is looking pretty bad. These guys are a hard bunch to catch."

"The outside world's not doing any better," said Charmy in a bored tone while flipped through the channels on TV. He stopped when he hit the news station where he heard the reporter mention something about Akatsuki.

"_I'm standing in the ruins in downtown Station Square where reconstruction is already underway. Just days ago, the area was destroyed by a demon that was described as a fox with four tails. The demon was believed to be somehow connected to a an organization of terrorists called "Akatsuki." The Guardian Unit of Nations is doing everything in its power to track down the elusive organization, but so far nothing has turned up. Widely feared as a group of master ninjas, the Akatsuki are notorious for hiding in the shadows…" _

"_Look, Senpai! I'm on Tv!"_ Tobi shouted, flailing his arms excitedly in the background.

"_Get away from there, Tobi, you dumbass!"_ Deidara's hand reached out from off screen and grabbed Tobi's collar, yanking him off camera.

"Turn that off," Vector grunted as he barged in, a whole slew of paperwork was tucked under his meaty arms.

"Where have you been, Vector?" asked Espio.

"Doing detective work. Damn good detective work at that," he boasted.

"So did you find something?"

"You bet I did! The rest of the world will be running in circles looking for those guys, however, I've managed to pick up a few leads," Vector said proudly. "While I was checking the wanted lists for bounty hunters, some interesting things came up. Lately, there's been quite a stir in the bounty hunting community when certain bounties have started to drop like flies. Within days, criminals from all over Mobius with a dead or alive poster and a wanted fee exceeding 100,000 rings or more have been brought in."

"Bounty hunters all over the world are pissed because they can't make the big bucks anymore, not with this kind of competition.

"Let me see that," Shadow grabbed the list and scanned the names. "This is an impressive looking list. These bounty hunters have collected a huge sum by taking out the worst criminals on Mobius. Look at these names. Everyone on this list is dead. Ixis Naugus, Mammoth Mogul, Dr. Finitevus, the Destructix, Scourge the Hedgehog, Fiona Fox…, Tails isn't that the girl you had a crush on? She's dead now."

"I don't care," Tails muttered without looking up from his own work.

"Cold hearted…I like that," a ghost of a smile fitted over Shadow's expression as he continued to sifting through the papers.

"If you want to see how they were killed I've got photos," Vector said. "They're not pretty, though."

Out of curiosity, Amy looked at the picture of Fiona Fox and nearly hurled. The picture showed her arms were nailed to a high wall, leaving all the blood to drain from her body. On the floor was a diagram of a triangle drawn inside a circle.

"Those markings show up at the scene of every murder. Nobody has any idea what it means," said Vector said. "Nobody who's seen these guys has lived to tell about it. These bounty hunters have a way of killing a lot of bystanders."

"At this rate it won't be long before they appear on the wanted posters themselves," Espio grumbled sourly.

"They already are. On ours. We'll catch them for sure. If they're picking off high profile criminals with big bounties, it shouldn't be too hard to find their next target."

"There's only one major player who they haven't caught yet," Vector said. "They're sure to strike him next."

"Dr. Robotnik," a profile of Sonic's nemesis appeared on screen.

"Even after his capital city, Robotropolis was destroyed, he's been trying to regain his power by going back to his old ways: Capturing defenseless little animals and roboticizing them. He wants to rebuild his empire. He must have realized Sonic is gone and is using the opportunity to capture those woodland critters and build an army. That's how he started the Eggman Empire and that's how he plans to make a new one."

"How much is he going for?" asked Charmy.

Vector let out low whistle. "7,000,000 rings."

"I'm going to pay a visit to the good doctor, then," Shadow said. "I have some questions I'd like to ask him."

"I'm coming with you," Amy said.

"No. You're not. You're not going to be any use to me."

"If this gets us any closer to Sonic, then I have to help," she demanded.

"What are you going to do? You can't fight worth a damn."

"I used to, but I can't anymore because _you _broke my hammer, remember?"

"In battle, weapons tend to break. You simply pick up a new weapon after that. It's not the end of the world."

"I've never held anything other than my hammer. What kind of weapon am I supposed to use?"

"Do you know how to use one of these?"

Amy held the tip of the gun. She looked like she touched something dipped in toxic waste. "I never even held one of these before."

"It's never too late to start. Let's see if you have it in you. If all else fails, it'll be fun to watch you screw up and then die."

Amy pistol whipped Shadow across the face. "I hate you so much, Shadow!"

"Good. You can use it."

* * *

High above the clouds, the huge mechanical Flying Battery Base roared across the sky. The giant warship, an actual zone in itself, was built twice as vast as Dr. Robotnik's first warship, the Wing Fortress. Deep in the center of his base, Dr. Robotnik paced back and forth through the dimly lit halls of his airborne dungeon. The constant rumbling of the engines was music to his ears. On the walls to his left and to his right were hundreds of egg prisons all lined up in neat rows. As he passed by, he observed the kidnapped critters struggling to break free of his egg prisons.

"Computer, when will the roboticizer be ready to accept these animals?"

"Twelve hours, Doctor," announced the monotone voice of his computer.

"Excellent!" Robotnik drummed his fingers together gleefully. "I couldn't wait another minute longer! In twelve hours, I will unleash my new army of fully functional robots over an unsuspecting Mobius. Then, when I've established my rule, the Akatsuki will feel my wrath."

"Perfect timing, un," he heard a voice breathe softly.

"Who's there?" Robotnik demanded. "Show yourself!"

"Greetings. Dr. Ivo Robotnik," one of the Akatsuki members stepped up to meet him. What interested the doctor most about this one was that one of his arms was missing. "You might recognize me since I tried to kill you before, but I haven't yet introduced myself formally. I'm Deidara, master of artistic explosions, un."

Robotnik nodded slowly. "I remember you. But you had two arms when I saw you last. Who took that arm of yours?"

"You don't have to worry about the guy who took my arm, un."

"I must know," said Robotnik. "He was a Mobian, right? Was it Shadow? Sonic?"

"He's not your problem. You'd just laugh if I told you, un."

"It's all printed in the news, Senpai," Tobi appeared next to his partner with yesterday's newspaper in hand. "They even have a picture of the kitsune along with all those other guys."

"The kitsune? You mean Tails? Sonic's worthless sidekick did that to you? How is that possible?"

"He's not keeping up with what's going on, is he? I guess he didn't find it funny, huh, Senpai?" said Tobi. "That's too bad because I was laughing so hard at the time. It was so crazy how you lost your arm in another explosion."

"Don't interrupt us, Tobi. This is serious business, un."

"I know. I know. I really don't want to bother you," he said politely. "I just wanted to ask you if we can take all the woodland critters back with us when we're done. Can we, please?"

"No," Deidara said sternly. "That's not why we're here, un."

"But we don't have any pets in our organization," Tobi whined. "Except for maybe Kisame."

"We're not taking any of these animals with us because they're all going to explode along with this Flying Battery, un," said Deidara. "By my perfect art, of course."

Robotnik let loud a loud belly laugh. "Hahahah! Is that why you're all up here? Just to destroy my ship? You really think you can do that?"

A hard glare from Deidara's azure eye and Robotnik suddenly stopped laughing. He realized maybe that wasn't the smartest decision. He had already seen enough of his world go up in smoke.

After a tense moment, Deidara lit up another, bigger smile. "No. That's just for my exit. I'm really here because I want to see your roboticizer, un."

"Roboticizer?"

"For my arm of course. I need a replacement if I want to create the art of the highest quality. Sculpting requires two hands, after all. I could've had Kakuzu repair my arm, but this time, I feel that I could use something a little more cutting edge, un."

Tobi leaned in and whispered into Robotnik's ear, "He loses his limbs all the time, often because of an explosion."

"Tobi," Deidara breathed calmly, trying to reign in his anger, "why don't you go outside and play with those sharp spinning blades?" Deidara suggested.

"Okey-dokey, Senpai," Tobi nodded and hurried away.

"Sorry about my partner. He's new and a little crazy. Now that he's gone, we can talk a bit more seriously, un."

"There's nothing serious you can say. Not with that ridiculous speech impediment of yours."

"It's not a speech impediment, un. I should kill you for that remark, but you know what? Ever since I saw your city go up in that amazing explosion, I've been waiting for a chance to meet you, un. To think, you're the man who has been at the center of more explosions that anyone in history and you still survived. I'm truly honored, un," Deidara reached out his hand to shake Robotnik's. The doctor recoiled in horror when he saw the mouthing monstrosity and its slobbering tongue on the palm his hand.

"Oh, sorry. You're not used to that, huh?" Deidara regarded his hand, smiling. "These are my muses. They talk to me sometimes, giving me ideas of what to create next. Most of the time, they just stick out their tongues, though."

"If you're trying to intimidate me, it won't work. I won't be killed by a skinny punk like you!" Robotnik shouted.

Deidara yawned through Robotnik's rant. "Relax. I never said I was going to kill you. Those other guys with me though, have other plans, un," he thumbed towards the direction behind him.

Robotnik looked to where Deidara had pointed and heard footsteps echoing down the hall. "I'll leave you guys alone. They like to do things by themselves," Deidara said, walking away. "And besides, their work is so…unsightly. Nothing artful at all. You won't die a very beautiful death, un," Deidara mumbled to himself as he stepped away.

By the time Deidara was out of sight, two more black robed ninjas emerged from the shadows, sporting the same cloaks. One was tall and broad, his face hidden by a mask like a traditional ninja. Staring intently at him from behind the mask were the strangest pair of eyes Robotnik had ever seen. They were blood red with pupiless green irises. No human ever had that odd coloration.

The other ninja was far less conservative. His cloak was opened and unbuttoned to the waist and his collar popped open, revealing a muscular chest. His silver hair was slicked back. While the other ninja was unarmed, this one carried a huge scythe with three sharpened red blades, dripping with blood from a previous kill. A silver medallion of a triangle inside a circle adorned his neck. Approaching the doctor, he closed his eyes and devotedly kissed his medallion.

"Bad news, chubby. You've been chosen to be the next sacrifice," the silver haired man said. "I am the dark priest Hidan, wielder of Jashin's tri-bladed scythe, Bringer of Destruction. In the name of my god, I have come to take your life."

"That's enough, Hidan," the other ninja spoke in a deep muffled voice. "We don't have to tell him anything. If you would stop wasting time talking, we could have killed him already."

"Piss off, Kakuzu! Everyone whose blood is spilled in Jashin's name has the right to know why they're being sacrificed."

"That's unprofessional. You're just wasting my time and you're driving me crazy."

"I know my rituals are annoying," Hidan admitted, "but I have to do them. My mission is to spread Jashin's name across this godless world. This guy's a big name here. Offering him up will please my god."

"Who gives a rat's ass what makes your god happy? We need to kill him only for the bounty."

"I'm not even sure we'll even get paid for this one," Hidan said. "They might decide to give the reward money to his cholesterol."

"Enough!" Robotnik stamped the floor in frustration. "You have a lot of nerve to speak like that in front of me. I, the Great Dr. Ivo Rrrrrrrobotnik will not suffer your impudence!"

"Did he just…roll his 'r's?" Hidan asked. "I swear of all the lame things…"

"He's a nuisance. Just get rid of him already," Kakzuzu urged.

"You're making a tremendous mistake," Robotnik warned. "I'll see to it that you two will never this place alive."

Hidan stuck in his ear, cleaning it out. He then took two steps closer to Robotnik, a sinister smirk formed on his face and his lavender eyes glowed fiercely. "I don't think I heard you clearly. Why don't you say that one more time?"

After a moment's hesitation, Robotnik suddenly bolted down the hall.

"He's getting away!" Kakuzu roared. "You'd better kill him, Hidan, or I'll kill you."

"You shouldn't talk like that," Hidan said. "You'll give yourself a heart attack that way. All five of them. And don't you worry about me killing this guy. I mean, just look at him run."

Hidan laughed just watching Robotnik try and run away. It was amazing that his thin legs managed to support that big red balloon-like body.

"We're in the middle of the open sky. Where's he gonna go anyway?"

Suddenly, there was the sound of grinding metal and the whir of machinery. The metal floor opened up before them. A giant robot rose up from below. It looked like a metallic version of Robotnik (with a wide belly to match), except it was over twenty feet tall with arms that ended in spiked claws.

Hidan sneered at the monstrous mech before him. "He has made a graven image in his own likeness. That's an unforgivable sin!"

"This is nowhere near as powerful as the robot kitsune the others mentioned. We should be able to destroy this with ease," Kakuzu said.

A robot kitsune more powerful than his own creations? Robotnik didn't like the sound of that at all. He always knew that Tails had the higher intelligence, but he never considered him a rival. Now, Robotnik was regretting that mistake. Tails will have to be taken more seriously from now on. He could no longer afford to treat him as "just Sonic's sidekick."

"I hate robots," Hidan threw his scythe into the metal floor and charged, the blades screeched along the floor, setting off a trail of sparks in his wake.

"You idiot!" Robotnik shouted with a smile from inside the cockpit. "You can't do anything with that foolish head on attack."

A rocket fired and Robotnik launched one of his arms forward. Hidan's spikes collided with his opponents, releasing shower for golden sparks and a shockwave that shook the entire ship. The force threw Hidan back and slammed into the side of the ship, sandwiched in between the wall and the arm missile. The robot's arms nearly impaled him all the way through. Robotnik heard a grunt of pain as Hidan pulled the robot's claws out of his chest and threw the thing aside. Hidan's scythe had ruined it beyond repair, now nothing but a pile of scrap metal. His robot had lost an arm, but it was worth it. His enemy was wounded. He could be killed after all, and there were plenty more weapons available. Feeling triumphant enough, the colossal mech stomped towards Hidan

"This is pissing me off, Kakuzu. Have I bought you enough time yet?"

The robot suddenly froe in mid-stomp. "Something's jamming the gears, but what? Dozens of oily black tentacles slithered their way inside the mech. Robotnik saw the source. All the tentacles originated from the masked ninja Kakuzu's robes. They darted like striking snakes and wrapped around Ivo's arms, pinning them to his side. Another mass of writhing tentacles latched onto parts of the mech inside and out. With one powerful tug, Kakuzu ripped the robot apart, cracking it open like a raw egg. Robotnik shrieked as he was yanked out of his seat. Kakuzu flung him into the air. The doctor was left helpless, trying to free himself from the binding rope.

"If you would only pray to Jashin rather than relying on your lousy erector sets, you might have been saved, but it's too late for that now," Hidan said, raising his scythe. He watched Robotnik dangling from the black strands, wriggling like a big fat fish caught on a line. His imagination ran wild with the thought of gutting the man open, watching his fatty entrails come spilling out. His lavender eyes burned with murderous delight. Jashin was going to be so pleased.

"Please! Just stop this madness! We can make a deal!" Robotnik pleaded.

"Ha Ha! He squeals just like a pig! Say 'oink oink,' piggy," Hidan taunted.

"Finish him, already," Kakuzu demanded. Neither Akatsuki noticed the tiny remote control gripped in his hand.

"May your spilled blood sanctify Jashin's great name!" Hidan called out and swung his scythe. Robotnik pressed the button. A yellow light beamed up from the floor and up to the ceiling. The energy beams cleanly sliced off the black tendrils, dropping Robotnik to the floor. Before Kakuzu could reach out again, several more beams came down, surrounding Robotnik within four walls of blinding energy, granting him an impenetrable force field.

Hidan stalked along the sides of the force field, going back and forth, glaring hungrily at the doctor along the way. Even through the brightly glowing yellow walls, Hidan's lavender eyes shimmered as clear as ever. Hidan flicked a few specks of blood off his scythe. Upon contact with the energy field, they instantly evaporated into red steam.

"Of all the cheap things…" Hidan murmured. "I hate this planet with all its futuristic junk."

"If you hadn't wasted time, this wouldn't have happened," Kakuzu said impatiently. "Now our jobs just got harder."

"I know how to solve this, so lay off, Kakuzu. You might as well just shove your dick in the roboticizer. With that attitude, you'll never get laid, anyway."

"You're wasting your time, gentlemen. You'll never get past here. Of course, if your miserable excuse for a god is so powerful, pray to him to shatter my barrier," the rotund man taunted from behind his shield.

"You atheist cocksuckers are all alike!" Hidan slammed his scythe into the floor in frustration. "You'll never understand what it means to bind yourself to the will of he who abides in eternity. You really think that some contraption you pulled put of your fat ass will protect you from the fires of divine judgment…"

"_He just goes on and on…" _Kakuzu shook his head.

When he was finished preaching, Hidan at last fell silent. He closed his eyes as if to pray again. His skin started to sizzle and crackle as if on fire. Robotnik sensed a horrible dread descend upon him. The chakra surrounding the dark cleric came out to extinguish the light around him. A white skeletal pattern formed over his new body, transforming the once handsome young priest into a hideous skeletal figure. He then pulled out a slender spear from his cloak.

"Th-that's not going to work," Robotnik stammered. "None of your weapons can possibly break through a field of pure energy."

Globs of sweat poured down Robotnik's bald head. Hidan could see it through the energy wall, and it made him smile. "Maybe not, but Jashin's arm will find you and punish you."

The cleric then raised his spear as high as he could and jammed it straight through the palm of his own hand.

Robotnik howled in pain. Blood poured out of an open wound in his hand…exactly in the spot where the skeletal cleric stabbed his own hand. If was as if the spear had actually pierced his own flesh. Indeed, when Robotnik' brought his swimming vision under control, he saw to his horror, a gaping hole in the palm of his hand.

"Now you understand," Hidan said solemnly. "Judgment Day has come. All sinners will pay a reckoning." Hidan lifted the black spear again, now dripping with his own blessed blood. He carefully positioned it over his heart.

"No!" Robotnik begged. "I can't die like this!"

"Your last words," Hidan whispered in the midst of his divine rapture. "Say them now."

A great yellow light flashed down. Something caught the spear before Hidan could finish his ritual.

"What is this light?" Hidan asked in surprise. "Is this a manifestation of God?"

"Close," a voice from the light spoke. "It's Shadow the Hedgehog."

"Freeze, dirtbags!" Amy appeared alongside Shadow. She aimed her gun at Kakuzu's face.

"These two are the kitsune's friends," said Kakuzu. "They must have come to stop us."

"Much as I like your style, I've got business with the doctor here, so you'll have to step back and let me take him," Shadow said.

"Fuck that!" Hidan barked. "I need to complete the ritual."

"I need the money!" Kakuzu added angrily.

"What is this? Some kind of voodoo? I like voodoo," Shadow said, grabbing the spear for himself. "Let's see how well it works. The black hedgehog disappeared and instantly reappeared behind Hidan, then shoved the spear up his rear end.

Both Hidan and Robotnik screamed in agony.

"Yeah, I really like voodoo," Shadow then drove the blood soaked spear straight through Hidan's foot.

Hidan staggered out of the ritual circle, moaning in pain. Inside the barrier, Robotnik toppled over onto the floor, only half conscious.

"You assbiting bastard!" Hidan spat blood into the hedgehog's face. "No one does that to a holy man and gets away with it! Don't you know who I am? I am Hidan. I kick ass and I take names."

"I only need to kick ass. My secretary take names for me," Shadow replied wryly.

Having no need anymore for the voodoo ritual, Hidan transformed again, returning from the black skinned skeleton body to his original form.

"You furries are really starting to creep me out. Before I kill you, there's just one thing I gotta know," Hidan marched up and bent down getting directly into Shadow's face. How the hell do you breathe with those tiny noses?" he honked the hedgehog's little black nose for good measure.

"Amy, I'm going to kill this guy. Why don't you do something about the other one?"

"What should I do?" she pointed at the masked ninja.

"You have a gun. Just shoot him."

Amy held tightly to her pistol with both hands, took aim, and opened fire.

"A worthless attack," said Kakuzu.

"Shadow! I don't think this gun's working," Amy cried. "What should I do now?"

Shadow sighed. "Put the gun to your head and try it again. Maybe then it'll work."

"Get over here!" a long tendril sprang from Kakuzu's sleeve towards Amy

"SHADOOOOW!! HELP!"

"You don't time to save your pink woman," Hidan laughed and swung his scythe at the hedgehog.

Shadow stood still, directly in the path of the scythe's swing. He snapped his fingers, sending flares of energy that melted the scythes blades to slag. Hidan opened his mouth to curse the hedgehog, but Shadow had already teleported away, only to reappear, landing on top of Hidan and locking his hands around his neck. Hidan tore it his wrists to pry the hedgehog's immovable grip. A gruesome sounding _crack _echoed throughout the dungeon hall. Shadow had snapped the priest's neck with one quick motion. Hidan's lifeless body crumpled to the floor. Amy cringed, but Kakuzu looked on in fascination.

"Let down your stupid shield, Doctor," Shadow said, stepping over Hidan's dead body. "No one will harm you now."

"I couldn't possibly be any more harmed than I am now!" Robotnik yelled, blood pouring down his mouth. "I am staying put right where I am."

Shadow sighed and placed his hands directly on the force field. His own energy field pulsed from his hands and intermingled with the force field, canceling out the energy.

"Get up. I don't have time to deal with you. I have to kill this next guy," Shadow said, eyes narrowing at Kakuzu.

"Leave the doctor with me or she dies," Kakuzu threatened. "Attack me and I'll rip her heart out."

Shadow took a single step forward and the black strands tightened around Amy's neck. Amy tried in vain to pull the tendrils off her neck, but they only tightened more.

"Careful, I won't die as easily as Hidan."

"What's with all the racket, un? Deidara returned. "Oh, it's them, is it? What in interesting visit.

"You again? I thought you'd be smart enough to stay away after the way we destroyed you."

"Yeah, speaking of that, where's your kitsune friend?" Deidara asked. "I owe him something, un." Deidara's sleeve dropped, revealing his new mechanical arm.

"We don't need them to help us find the kitsune," Kakuzu said. "We'll kill them. It's as simple as that."

"In that case, you can dump the girl in one of those egg containers with the rest of those woodland critters. We'll watch them all go up in a bang shortly, un," said Deidara.

"Fine, but the black hedgehog is different. I must harvest his heart for myself."

Deidara shrugged. "Have it your way. You'll need all the hearts you can get now that your partner is dead. Too bad for Hidan. He was barely fit for Akatsuki, but the penalty for killing any member in the organization is still death, un."

"Dream on, Deidara, you faggot. I'm not dead," Hidan lurched to his feet, rubbing his neck. He looked annoyed as if he merely slept on the wrong side pf the bed "Ugh…that's gonna be sore for awhile, won't it?"

"Still alive?" Shadow asked, only a bit surprised.

"You're damn right I'm alive! Why don't you try that again, huh? You think you will be the one who will finally kill me?"

"Yes," Shadow said simply. "I will."

Kicking away his melted scythe, Hidan charged furiously, his spear in the lunge position.

"Say your final prayers. Chaos Spear!" Shadow unleashed a furious blast of chaos energy towards the cleric. No human has ever survived a direct hit to his attack before and there was no way Shadow was going to let that start with this guy.

"Jashin!" Hidan closed his eyes and shouted as he continued charging straight towards the bolt of light, counting on his faith to grant him salvation.

Salvation indeed came when popping out of nowhere, Tobi appeared and blocked the blast with a single hand. The energy ricocheted off his hand, dispersing in every direction.

When the smoke cleared, Deidara's mouth dropped open. "Tobi…you…you're…"

"Amazing? Thanks, Senpai." Tobi replied bashfully. "That means so much coming from you."

"…Your hair's on fire!" Deidara finished, pointing to the top of his head.

Tobi sniffed the air, smelling the smoke. In the reflection of Deidara's silvery arm, Tobi saw a column of flame burning over on his head. His hair was burning away like dry straw.

"YAAAAA!! Put it out! Put it out!" Tobi screamed, racing back and forth maniacally.

"What should we do about him?" Hidan asked.

"Take a picture. This could make us some money," said Kakuzu.

"Enough with that, we've got a meeting with the Leader very soon," Deidara checked his wrist which now came with a nice new clock. "We need to leave now, un."

"No!" Hidan Shouted. "I haven't settled things with hedgehog here yet. We're not leaving until I do."

"Preach to someone who cares, un," Deidara said. "It's time for us to go."

Kakuzu nodded in agreement. Walking up to the wall of the ship, the Taki-nin held out his arm. On command, his arm blackened and hardened to steel. He punched his metallic fist through the wall, creating a gaping hole that opened them up to the rushing winds outside. Looking back at Shadow, he threw Amy into his arms. "Let your immortal heart beat one more day, for I will return to collect it."

The Akatsuki members stood before the open sky, their cloaks billowed wildly in the wind. A giant clay eagle swooped down to meet them.

"Send Tails-kun my regards, un," Deidara smiled and waved farewell just before leaping onto the bird. Kakuzu and Hidan, and Tobi jumped next, missing the bird and falling into the vast blue.

"Deidara, your partner just—"

"It's fine. He survives these things all the time, un." The eagle beat its clay wings and soared away, carrying the Akatsuki members towards their destination.

"Shadow, there's clay plastered all over the place," Amy said.

"Then we have to leave."

"No!" she pulled on his chest fur hard. "First we need to save all the captured little animals."

As soon as Amy pressed the master switch, hundreds of animals poured out of the egg prisons

"What a waste of energy," Shadow complained. "They should chaos control themselves out of here

"You can't leave all those innocent animals to die. You have to chaos control them out of here.

"Not only could I, but I can leave you to die with them, but that's more trouble than it's worth. I'll do it, but only because I don't want Akatsuki to score any points."

"You're such a bastard, Shadow."

"You owe this 'bastard' your life. Just remember that," Shadow raised his arms and a bight sphere of light spiraled around them all. When they were gone, a great explosion sounded through the empty airship. Shadow and Amy watched safely from the ground the giant fireball bursting in the sky.

"I guess that's it. Too bad the Akatsuki got away again," Amy sighed. "At least we saved everyone."

"I'm done here. We'll get those freaks next time."

"Wait? What are we supposed to do about Dr. Robotnik?"

"Robotnik goes to jail, but you might want to call a very good butt doctor first."

Shadow was just starting to leave when he felt something grab his leg. He looked down and saw one of the little gray bunnies was hugging him, staring up at him with big teary eyes. Shadow started to feel nauseous.

"Is this the kind of thing Sonic had to put up with everyday?"

Animals from all over Mobius now gathered before Shadow. Many of them were the very same animals that Sonic had saved countless times before. There were the Flickie Birds, Pocky the Bunnie, Ricky the Chipmunk, Rocky the Seal, Cucky the Pig, Pecky the Chicken, Picky the Penguin, and many more species from all over Mobius.

"Shadow the Hedgehog saved us all. He's a true hero! Let's show him our thanks.

"I don't need to be thanked. Get lost."

"Hooray for Shadow!" the animals cheered in their high pitched voices which was damaging to Shadow's ears. Then, the situation grew much worse when they all piled on top of him

"No! Get off of me, you woodland bastards!" he shouted, trying to push his way out of the crowd.

"Shadow, you look absolutely adorable," Amy said, grinning from ear to ear.

"That's the last thing I need to look like! Get them off me, Amy!"

"Okay, but first, we need to take a picture."

'No! Absolutely not! Let go! No pictures! Stop!"

* * *

Far away, the white bird flew across the continent carrying its three Akatsuki passengers. Deidara sat at the head of the bird, mentally steering it to their destination. Kakuzu sat on the bird's back, eyes shut tight and motionless. His partner Hidan knew him well enough to know that the masked ninja was seething inside.

"Relax," Hidan said calmly. "I know you're pissed because you blew the bounty. I'll make it up to you by killing that Ultimate Lifeform for you. You can even have his heart when I'm done with him."

"You're not improving my mood, Hidan," Kakuzu's bloody eyes hardened. "Pretty soon it'll be your head I want."

"You know I had my losses too, but you don't see me bitching about them. That black hedgehog is a psycho. I'm injured in ways I never thought I'd be and it'll cost a fucking fortune to replace my scythe. It's no big deal, though. I'm immortal and in the end, it's only money."

"That will have to come out of your pocket," said Kakuzu coldly. "There's no room in the budget for us to replace your weapon."

"Holy blades don't come cheap. The Robotnik bounty might not even have covered it. How much was he worth again? 7,000,000 smackaroos, right?"

"Don't remind me."

"Maybe it's a sign that we weren't meant to be on this planet," Hidan said. "I still can't take this mission of ours seriously. Chasing after this two-tailed squirt…"

"You'd better start taking it seriously," said Deidara. "The longer it takes to capture him, the stronger that kitsune can grow, un."

"Shut up and drive your bird, Dei-dei. You already lost to that jinchuuriki. Nobody cares what you think."

"You know what the difference is between you and me?" Deidara asked. "I drop real bombs. All you do is drop is F-bombs, un."

"Just admit it. You're art sucks. As much as Jashin is pleased by destruction, your clay bombs are just dumb and loud and a stupid way to fight."

"Criticism is easy. Art is difficult, un," Deidara said in reply. Kakuzu noticed him gritting his teeth, holding in his temper.

"You can't even call it art. Why don't you just admit that you're wasting your life when you could be devoting your life to Jashin's service?"

"First, I've got a theological question for you. If I shoved a bomb up your ass right now and blew you into tiny pieces, would you survive?"

"Yes!" Hidan stood up on the bird and proclaimed mightily, "Jashin can perform miracles! I am fully immortal. Nothing can kill me!"

"One of these days, someone will find you too troublesome to let you live and he'll find a way to kill you, un. Until then…" Deidara gave Hidan a surprise kick. Hidan tumbled off the bird and plummeted through the clouds.

They all knew that the immortal Hidan would've survived the fall, but Jashin performed a miracle for his faithful servant and broke his fall when Hidan's cloak snagged on a tall tree branch, leaving the cleric dangling upside down in the middle of a dense forest.

"Oh, this is just fucking fantastic," Hidan moaned. Not seconds later, one of his fellow Akatsuki members materialized from the tree.

"I see things didn't go well," he said. "This just goes to show you that you can't depend on your god to help you."

"I don't wanna hear about it, Zetsu. Beat it, before I roll you up into a joint and smoke you!"

"Maybe you should worry about getting down from there first," Zetsu said in a dry whisper and then merged back into the trees.

"Hey! Wait a sec, Zetsu!" Hidan cried. "Get your leafy ass back here and help me down! ZETSU!"

Above the trees, Hidan heard a crow calling.

* * *

Marine the raccoon After the dungeon started to mysteriously cave in, she was pulled away by the rushing and sent out of the Labyrinth and into the open waters, free from those crazy mazes.

"I'm free! Back into the open ocean and into a world of adventure!"

Marine loved the cried of the seagulls and the salty sea air and missed it so much that she inhaled deeply to take it all in. Her ship reeked from being stuck in the mazes for too long. A lot of algae, a lot of mildew covered the wood in puke green gunk.

"Oh, how rotten! This ship has seen better days. Sailing around inside a danky ol' dungeon can't be good for the wood. I've got to swab this here deck and scrub it good." Marine pulled out a mop and started to sweep the deck of all the muck and grime.

"Ow! Let go!" a voice yelled. It was coming from the mop.

"Strewth! I must be going barmy. I think the mop just spoke to me."

"I'm not a mop. I'm a ninja," said the mop.

"A ninja mop?"

"No!" the mop shouted and leapt out of her hand. All the water the mop soaked up flowed out and stood up straight until it to solidified into human form. "I'm Suigetsu. I was lying low in there, get it now?" he finished harshly, baring his razor sharp teeth.

Anyone else would've been terrified at the white haired water man, but Marine just grinned cheerfully. "No need to spit the dummy about it, mate. How would I know there'd be ninja hiding in my mop. And I always thought we pirates were good with hiding places."

"Where is this ship going?" Suigetsu leaned on the edge, surveying the ocean. Nothing but seawater as far as his eye could see.

"It's going wherever there's adventure and treasures," Marine said happily. "Where you headed, anyway?"

"You wouldn't want to come with me," Suigetsu said in a low, dark voice. "I'm looking for the Akatsuki."

"Akatsuki? You mean those blokes in cloaks?"

"You know about them?"

Marine nodded happily. "I passed by them back in the ol' Labryinth Zone. What do you want with them?"

"I need to hunt them down. They have something I need," Suigetsu said.

Marine shook her head. "Oh, I don't know if that's a good idea," Marine said. "They looked like a real cranky bunch to me. I tried to sail clear of those bushrangers."

"Listen, You really want adventure and treasure, don't you? Looking for Akatsuki will be the adventure of a lifetime. As for treasure, the members all wear special rings. Each ring that they wear is worth than an all the greatest pirate treasure you could imagine."

"Even an ankle biter like me could become Queen of the Pirates with that kind of loot! Well, now I'm just grinning like a shot fox. Sign me up, Swiggy."

"That's Suigetsu to you, brat, and we'll also have to work on your communication skills."

"Why are you whining about the way I talk?"

"I couldn't understand a damn thing you've said this entire time!" Suigetsu shouted.

"No need to go and give me a gobful, mate," Marine said. "We can beat the language barrier."

"Never mind. Maybe you can be useful by confusing Kisame long enough for me to get a good stab at him. Which reminds me, first thing I need to do is find a sword."

"No worries, mate. I got one for ya," Marine tossed him one of her scimitars.

Suigetsu scowled at the small scimitar in his hand. It was obviously made for someone of Mobian size. Too small to use effectively. Although if he used this in battle, he would certainly kill Kisame. The shark man would die laughing.

"This isn't a sword. This is a toothpick."

"You seem to know an awful lot about teeth, mate," Marine said. "Can't argue with you on that, but never fear. We'll get ourselves some good weapons. This adventure's just got started."

"I need something much bigger. I also need a drink of water. Lots of water. Try to sail us towards some freshwater, all right?" Suigetsu said and leaned down by the edge of the boat. Why was it that he always had to team up with the strangest people? At least the raccoon girl wasn't a bitch like Karin. For that, he was grateful.

"By the way, do you happen to know a fox named Tails," Suigetsu asked. "He has two tails. You wouldn't forget him if you've seen him."

"I haven't seen him myself , but I've heard the name. Sonic the Hedgehog told me all about him."

"I'm looking for him, too."

* * *

Amy returned back to her apartment later that day, dead tired from a day of getting wrapped in tentacles and dodging explosions. She fumbled for her keys and staggered through the doorway

"What a nightmare," she sighed heavily. "I want my hammer back. I want my Sonikku back, too. I hope Tails builds that silly vortex portal thing soon."

Amy was about to pass out on her bed, but then she heard the sound of her shower running. Very carefully, she got up and tiptoed into the bathroom. It was hard to tell through the hot steam, but someone was definitely in there, taking a shower. Amy went for her hammer, a regular household one, since her piko piko was destroyed. Ever so carefully, she snuck closer to the shower curtains. With one quick pull, she flipped open the shower curtain and raised her hammer.

"Oh, hello," a small brown dog lifted his paw in greeting.

It was that ugly little pug dog, using her shampoo. It was rare to see a smile on his wrinkly face.

"I'm Pakkun, remember? I hope you don't mind. You have excellent shampoo. I thought I'd never get the stink of Labyrinth Zone out of my hair, but your stuff did the trick. Just what my fur needed."

Amy fainted.

* * *

After dropping off Robotnik in prison and Amy at home, Shadow teleported back to the Mystic Ruins at Tails' workshop.

"Get out here, Hinata. It's time to continue our training.

"Hey, izzat you, Shads?" the hedgehog heard a slurred voice call out. Then he saw Tails hobbling over with a sake bottle in hand, and a crooked smile.

Shadow shook his head and sighed. "Great. It's the drunkard…"

"I'm so happy to see ya, Shaddude," Tails threw his arms around the hedgehog and hugged him tightly.

Shadow's teeth started to grind. "Get off me, Tails! I've dealt with enough cute little animals hugging me to last me a lifetime."

"Come on, Shads. I know you don't really like me, but we gotta start getting along now. I'm gonna be an immortal jus' like you soon so we gotta start becoming bestest friends.

"I've had my fill of immortals. None of them should exist, except for me, of course," the hedgehog pried the tipsy kitsune off and threw him down.

"You're so cold, Shads. I bet Hinata wouldn't mind," Without warning, Tails leapt onto one very stunned Hinata and clung to her chest. He wore a big foxy grin while the side of his face rested on her breasts. _"Mmmm, nice bewbs. So comfy," _he thought.

"A-Ano, T-Tails-kun, you're so affectionate today," Hinata said, bewildered.

"That's cuz I luv you," he mumbled softly.

"I-I love you too," after a second's hesitation, she returned the hug. She couldn't tell if the intoxicated kit meant it, but as for her, Hinata had always loved foxes. They were her favorite animals, ever since she first met Naruto. His mischievous face instantly made her think of foxes. She rarely ever got to see any foxes since it seemed that everyone else in Konoha hated them for some reason, and they were often driven out or killed. They were a bad omen, always looked upon as symbols of destruction and trickery. Now, she saw why, but that didn't stop her from developing a soft spot for the kit.

"Hinata, drop the perv ball and let's go. We've got serious training to do," Shadow ordered.

"Hai," Hinata nodded. Since Tails was giving no signs of letting go, Hinata very gently loosened Tails' grip and off and sat him softly on the ground

Shadow meanwhile scanned his surroundings and noticed there where a lot of empty bottles scattered along the ground. Vector was passed out on his back ,snoring with his mouth wide open. Espio was out like a light, too, but he was still sitting in his meditative position. _"So they had a party. Wow, the kid drank a lot."_

"I have to go with Shadow now, Tails-kun.

"Don't go, Hinata," Tails tugged her sleeve and tried to pull her back. His big blue eyes started to get shaky and watery. "Stay with me instead."

"I'll come back soon, okay?" she said very softly, trying to keep him calm. If Tails cried now, she knew she'd never be able to leave. "I'm going to train now so that I can protect you better."

"Today, we'll work on accuracy," Shadow gave her a rifle with a scope that she slung around her shoulder. "But we also need to focus on power," he added and then placed the biggest machine gun Hinata could ever imagine in her hands. "And take this, too," Shadow instructed her to wear several belts of bullets around her. "If the machine gun breaks, you can use this submachine gun. And here are some extra magazines for it. Don't forget a few one handed pistols, just in case.

"Sh-Shadow-kun, this is all very heavy," Hinata said, practically buried up to her neck in artillery.

"I guess we have everything we need. Now that you're locked and loaded, let me see your meanest killing face. The one that says, 'I'm going to kill you and then relax in a Jacuzzi of your blood' look."

Hinata didn't know what exactly he meant, but she tried her best. "Grr," she snarled, baring her teeth while summoning forth all the killing intent in her spirit.

Shadow stood in front of her with a vacant expression. Tails burst out laughing and collapsed on the floor from a lack of air.

"There'll be time to get that right later. Let's get started in the meantime."

"Where are we going, Shadow-kun?"

"To a place we're can be far away from everybody. We're going to make a lot of noise and I want us to be as loud as the hell I want."

Tails sat up, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.. "Shadow, you know what that sounds like?"

"If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, than you are a bigger pervert than I thought."

"You're the only real pervy guy around here, Shadow," Tails retorted.

"I'm the Ultimate Lifeform. I'm not driven by such base desires," Shadow said firmly.

"Then give back that _Icha Icha _book you took from me," Tails demanded.

After a brief pause, Shadow chaos controlled the book into his hand and tossed it to the kit. "Fine. Take your stupid book. There weren't even any pictures, anyway," he mumbled and teleported away with Hinata.

Tails had just found the book lying around the other day in his workshop. He didn't know how it got there, but the back cover said it was written by a legendary ninja, so that was enough to get Tails interested.

"I don't know why everyone's calling me a pervert," Tails said as he flipped through the pages. "The characters in this book are way worse."

"You might not be a true pervert yet, Tails, but someday you just might be. It might be the least problematic thing the Kyuubi's influence is doing to you."

Tails' eyes widened in shock. "Kakashi-sensei?!"

"Yeah, Tails. It's me," the masked ninja waved appeared in the tree above. "I came to get my book back."

Tails was now surprised enough to be knocked back into a sober state. "But how can you be here? I saw you go through that portal."

"You saw a clone of me go through," said Kakashi. "I stayed behind and hitched a ride with you. I brought Pakkun with me too, but he seems to have ran off somewhere."

"I didn't see you or sense you," Tails insisted. "Nobody did. Not even Espio and he notices everything."

"Tails, I'm an elite jounin. There are a lot of things I can do. And the reason I'm here is because I'm going to teach you to do all those things. You'll need my help if you want to really prepare to face your enemies."

"Wait…all that sake was you?"

Kakashi smiled. "It's all part of the training."

"So whenever I drink, I'm really training?" Tails asked with a funny look.

"I get told I have strange training methods, but they really work. Besides, you wanted to train with Naruto? Well, I'm his sensei and I trained under the Fourth Hokage. That's a pretty good deal for you."

"So you stayed behind just so you could train me?"

"Honestly, I'd rather be here," Kakashi admitted. "Things can get stressful in Konoha. Everyday it's "Kakashi, go see the Hokage pronto. Kakashi, assassinate the daimyo. Kakashi, the cat is coughing up hairballs. Kakashi, you're dog took a dump on my lawn. Kakashi, it's time for another eternal duel. Kakashi, I'm pregnant. And on and on. This could be a good change of pace. No one knows I'm doing this, by the way. It's our little secret. My clone is covering for me back in Konoah. Truth be told, I don't envy my clone not one bit."

* * *

"Since my real self has the latest Icha Icha volume, I'm stuck reading the older stuff," Kakashi lazily thumbed through the pages of one of the older orange covered Icha Icha volumes. The paper was rumpled and worn out from years of constant flipping through the pages. Knowing every word by heart, it was depressing to think that the newest book was out of his reach. "I hope he brings it back soon. Things are looking pretty unpleasant around here."

Just as Kakashi decided to skip to one of the juicier scenes, the book was unexpectedly snatched out of his hands.

"Now who could be so cruel as to snatch a guy's book away without warning and—"

Kakashi was left speechless when he saw his book in the hands of a pretty young blonde dressed in black.

"Ahayo, Kakashi-san! I'm Misa-Misa."

"I—I kn—know who you are," he stammered. "I'm your biggest fan.

"Have you ever acted before, Kakashi-san?" she asked sweetly.

"Me? Act in an Icha Icha movie?" Kakashi was star struck.

"All the other actors are so dumb," Misa said sadly, "and my manager is an idiot, but Jiraiya-sama says you're a genius."

"Uh…of course, I'll have to see how this conflicts with my missions. I'll let you know," Kakashi said, trying very hard to keep his composure. "Can I have your autograph, though? You can sign the cover of my book."

"I've got an even better idea. Usually, I never do this, but just for you, I'll give you one of my extra special autographs," Misa said, "but you have to close your eye, okay?"

Kakashi shut his eye. After a minute, he felt something placed in his hand. He opened his eye and found a small black piece of cloth in his hand. It was very warm and soft. When he held it up, Kakashi saw Misa's signature in red lettering going across. That's when he realized what he was holding.

"Is this…your-your underwear…?

Misa nodded. "Fresh off my butt," she whispered into his ear.

Kakashi sighed with delight. "I must be in Heaven!"

* * *

"Nope. I don't envy him at all," Kakashi said again. "But forget about that. Are you ready to begin your training, Tails?"

"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" Tails smiled and nodded vigorously.

"Let me start be being very upfront with you. That day when I first saw you transform into the Kyuubi and attack Sasuke, part of me seriously planned on killing you."

"…" Tails flattened his ears. He couldn't think of anything to say to that.

"But I'm glad I didn't," Kakashi said, patting the kit playfully on his head to cheer him up. His grave looking face instantly shifted to the most carefree expression in the world.

"For you to be dead would be a tremendous catastrophe for both our worlds. For you to be alive isn't so simple either, but that's why I'm here. The purpose of our training is twofold," Kakashi held up two fingers. "First, I want to train you to be as effective a shinobi as you can be. Our goal is to have you move like a ninja, think like a ninja, react like a ninja, fight like a ninja, and if necessary, die like a ninja."

"The second goal is for both of us to understand and figure out your Kyuubi powers. At first, I told myself that we need to get that demon out of your system right away, but then I thought it over. After much consideration, I think we should first try to see how to best make this work for you and for the rest of us."

"The way the Kyuubi works with you is different than it was with Naruto. I noticed that from the beginning. Do you understand the difference?"

"I guess so. Kyuubi explained it to me once," Tails said.

"Essentially, it's the difference between sealed and unsealed chakra. Naruto wasn't born with the Kyuubi. It was placed inside him using a very complicated seal. To my knowledge, all nine jinchuuriki have a similar condition and the Akatsuki have been exploiting this to their advantage. You on the other hand, do not have the Kyuubi sealed inside you. That chakra isn't something that got added. It's a part of you…like an extra tail.

"Since you have no seals, I believe that you've had the Kyuubi inside you your whole life. That second tail there is not a mutation. It's a demonic kitsune trait. You're not a real jinchuuriki. You're more like a true demon."

"I'm a demon?" _Demon Tails._ It had a strange ring to it.

"This difference leads to a few things. For Naruto, too much Kyuubi chakra is painful and it can destroy his human body. That's enough of a reason not to let him use it. Naruto also has the disadvantage that he loses his mind and turns into a mindless raving monster."

"I know. I saw what happened.

"You're the opposite. Kyuubi chakra can do no physical damage to you because you're naturally in harmony with the chakra. There can be no better vessel to hold that chakra. For the same reason, you can retain your intelligence when transformed. You might even find your intelligence will increases. When putting these together, it's no wonder the Kyuubi favors you over Naruto."

"So that's great, isn't it? Kyuubi won't ever have to bother Naruto again and I have full control over it, right?"

"Hold on. I said your intelligence is unaffected," Kakashi said. "Your sanity is a totally different story. You know what I'm talking about. A demon's mind is on an entirely different plane that a mortal's. If you're not careful, it could mean the loss of your mind and soul. You'll be stronger than ever, but you might just lose everything you believe in."

"Do you understand what I'm saying, Tails? In this way, it's actually more dangerous for you to have the Kyuubi than for Naruto. In simple terms, big meanie Kyuubi does not make Tails a happy foxie."

"Is that why I'm drinking all that sake?"

"I know the idea sounds very dumb, but it's what he have to deal with, seeing as how Yamato is not with us. If he were here, he could've used his demon sealing abilities to control you. In a way, this is a good thing because you're forced to train yourself how to control your demon chakra, rather than having somebody doing it for you."

"Let me tell you about my master, he who became the Yondaime Hokage. In my opinion, he was the strongest of the Hokages. He wasn't as intelligent as the Third, nor did he have a gifted bloodline like the First, but he had something else."

"What was it?" Tails asked eagerly.

"My sensei was the type of person who liked to shatter the barriers of what people thought ninjutsu was all about. He was a soft spoken person, but nothing was out of bounds for him. He did things nobody else could dream of trying. He was the only one who spoke and made a pact with the God of Death. I'm not talking about some random shinigami. I'm taking about the King of Death. The one to whom all departed spirits must appear. My sensei crossed the boundaries of life and death and spoke with the Shinigami King and made a deal with him. No one else would dare try. The entire ninja world was in an uproar over that. He spoke with demons next. Got to know a lot about them. I don't think anybody in the world knew more about the Kyuubi than he did."

Tails looked thoughtful and nodded throughout the story. "Then what happened?"

Kakashi took a deep breath. "This is where you come in. Because he knew the Kyuubi was coming to attack the village. He somehow knew not to kill it. Instead, he kept it alive sealed inside one baby boy. That might sound like an evil thing to do, but my sensei had his reasons. Where everyone else saw only an engine of destruction, he saw something that could be tapped. He believed that in the right hands, a force of great evil can be used for good. For whatever reason, you have that evil force and if the Yondaime were here now, he could show you how to use that for best potential. It's not an easy path and few have ever walked it, but that's why he was Hokage. People who tried to become like him either died horrible deaths or became twisted monsters."

"Like Orochimaru?"

"Exactly. You'd think all the forbidden jutsus my master learned would make him go crazy, but he was a very laid back kind of guy, right to the very end. It's because he had an unbreakable will. If your will is strong enough, you can eventually learn to be in full control of the Kyuubi all the time. Look at the good you were able to draw from the Kyuubi already. Creating that Mecha Kyuubi turned out to be good for all of us. It's a big help for Naruto and he no longer needs to worry about Kyuubi's damage to his body."

"That's the idea," said Kakashi. "I'll teach you to prepare yourself. If you're going to live forever with the Kyuubi, you'd better make sure you can live peacefully with him. I know this sounds contradictory to you. Keeping the Kyuubi with you, learning to control him, knowing the evil you're dealing with, yet also learning to suppress it, using it only it in the right way. That's what really lies at the heart of ninjutsu. It's that balance between the forces of yin and yang."

"We're going to focus on understanding and working on your ninja strengths, so you won't have to rely on Kyuubi so much. The discipline will also train you to overcome the demon's powerful will with your own. Naruto already got you started by teaching you the fundamental things like Bunshin, Henge, and Kawarimi, and even some pretty advanced stuff like Kage Bunshin no jutsu and using scrolls to store and summon weapons. Those skills, along with your intellect already make you a formidable ninja, but we could take it further. The key is to find your area of expertise. Now, I would say that your ninja strength lies in the field of ninjutsu. It takes a lot of intelligence to gather chakra and use it to create a desired effect. So when we begin, we'll find out which of the five elements you have the best affinity for."

Kakashi held up five fingers. Emblazoned on each finger was a glowing kanji. "Fire, Water, Earth, Lightning, and Wind. Every living being in the universe is tied to one of these fundamental forces and he can master their power."

Awesome!" Tails punched the air and was so excited that he launched himself into the air. "I can't wait to find out!" Tails imagined himself lobbing massive fireballs at foes, or summoning tsunamis, maybe making earthquakes, sending lightning bolts down from the sky, or creating hurricanes. "I already got a good idea for which once mine is!"

"Take it easy. We'll learn all that tomorrow."

Tails came back to the ground, looking horribly crestfallen. "Tomorrow? I thought we were gonna start now," he protested

"We did start," Kakashi said. "Today was an introduction. I just explained a whole lot to you and now I'm exhausted. And with that, he went back to reading his book.

"How lame…" Tails groaned and slunk away. "And he got me so excited too…"

"Try to be patient, Tails," Kakashi called back. "I know you're in a hurry to save Sonic, but I'm sure he wouldn't want you to run into things you weren't ready for, but I promise you, if you follow my schedule, you'll be a jounin level shinobi in no time, and you'll find Sonic, wherever he might be."

* * *

Sonic the Hedgehog woke up and found himself in a dark room covered in shit.

It was a prison cell, to be exact. A small one too, dank and musty, with only one tiny barred window, just a little smaller than his head, letting in a faint glimmer of clouded moonlight. Sonic stood up and put his hands on the bars of his cell and scanned the hallway. All he could see was an endless black corridor lit by flaming torches, casting a dim, flickering orange glow along the dungeon walls. From the distance, he heard the sound of tortured screams echoing in the darkness.

"Lovely…" Sonic murmured glumly. A moment later, and Sonic heard some other sounds. Voices coming down the hall. Right away, he pictured whom one of the voices belonged to. Kabuto.

"By being in charge of the entire prison, Orochimaru-sama is trusting you with the utmost responsibility. The newest prisoner is extremely important to his plans. Make sure you take good care of him."

Another voice replied. It was a girl's. "You sound worried. Is this prisoner really so dangerous?"

"No, just very important. Orochimaru-sama will personally be making periodic visits to make sure things are going smoothly. We don't think he'll give you much trouble, but nevertheless, please be careful."

"Yeah. Just show me who it is," the girl sounded irritable. Who wouldn't be working in this dump, Sonic thought.

"What's the matter, Karin? You sound a little upset today?" Kabuto asked.

"I can't believe Sasuke was killed and Orochimaru-sama made zombies from his cells. That feels so wrong, even for him."

"But Orochimaru didn't kill Sasuke," said Kabuto. "If you want to place the blame on someone, here's the one you want."

And then they stopped in front of Sonic's cell. There was Kabuto, the bridge of his glasses were now taped together. With him was that girl named Karin. Her face was adorned with wild red hair and a pair of nerdy looking glasses. She seemed like the kind of personality that would be attracted to a guy like Sasuke.

Both of them adjusted their glasses at the same time as they regarded the blue hedgehog. Karin looked down at him in contempt. "This runt? I have to guard a rodent?"

"That rodent is very valuable to Orochimaru-sama. You have to take special care of him."

"Well, if it ain't Glasses Guy? I like the broken glasses and tape look. What's the matter? No Ocular Repairo no Jutsu for you?"

"Rule Number One in Orochimaru's Dungeon: No prisoner is allowed to speak. Punishment will be severe. All offenses will be dealt with by Karin, our prison master."

"You sound just like old Robbutnik. All tough when I'm behind bars, but just wait till I bust outta here. No one ever acts like a tough guy, then."

Kabuto chuckled and adjusted the bridge of his glasses. "No one has broken out of here before. Orochimaru-sama's prison is escape proof."

"Do you know how quickly I can spin through these bars?"

"All too well," Kabuto said. "Which is why I took the measure of injecting this poison into your bloodstream while you were unconscious," he held up a small glass vial that containing a strange purple liquid.

"Don't worry. It's quite harmless. For normal humans, anyway. However, the moment you're body starts to move at superhuman speeds, such as the speed you need to be spinning at to cut through metal, the poison will sense the vibration in your body. That will cause it to rush towards your heart. Once the poison reaches your heart, it will explode to pieces."

"Ouch. You've turned me into a slow-mo. Oro really knows how to take cheap shots," Sonic quipped.

"Orochimaru-sama will give you the antidote if you serve him well. Enjoy your stay in the meantime.

"Hey, porcupine," Karin said. "Just don't make trouble for me. Orochimaru-sama is in a bad mood these days and so am I."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Sonic replied, sounding as relaxed as possible. _"Is she ever in a good mood?"_

More blood curling screams echoed throughout the dungeon.

"I'm gonna have to do something about the background music in this place. Good thing I have just the thing," Sonic said to himself.

Satisfied, Karin went off to check the other cells. Soon, she heard music coming from Sonic's cell.

"You've got to be kidding," Karin groaned. "A harmonica?"

**To Be Continued…**

**Next Chapter: Those who have been asking about Cream, she'll be in the next chapter. I think I've written enough for now. There's some new amazing amazing fanart by Lycropath on my profile to look at, and I'll be back again soon!  
**


	17. Lightning Strikes in the Darkest Places

**Yo! Happy New Year, everybody! Let's celebrate with a new chapter!**

**Pikachu15evee: The best ever? Wow, thanks! It's an honor to hear that!**

**Dragon Man 180: I think I will write the adventures of Naruto and Hinata in Hell. They might go back down there at some point. I could see the evil she demons trying to tear Naruto away from her. That kind of thing is a good fanfic in itself.**

**Rikku92: The old Sonic 2 boss was always one of my favorites parts in all the Sonic games, so I guess I had to put it in. The theme for that is one of the best! I can't really bring myself to call Robotnik Eggman. I grew up with his name being Robontik. I guess Tails was a little out of character. He's had the Kyuubi for awhile and he has been getting a lot of cool powers. I think he identifies with him a bit.**

**: I know it's been a long long time in between updates. Sorry about all that. Yup. Tails is really changing a lot thanks to all these people he meets. He's gonna have a tough time with Kyuubi, that's for sure. I don't hate Fiona, much, but somebody had to die. Anyway, thanks for all the comments! ;)**

**Star's Dreams: Thanks a lot I'll try and keep the laughs coming!**

**Angelus Alvus: Yup. Shadow is a huge closet pervert. ;)**

**Winnow: Please don't die yet! I've got the next chapter up. Thanks a lot for reviewing**

**Clever Phoenix: I'll definitely add in a lot more Shadow. A lot of people want him in. I do, too!**

**Vicki of the Spirit Realm: Thanks. I hope you're still enjoying the story**

**Force Hog: Nope. I'm not dead. Just have a lot going on. Shadow makes me laugh the most, too. I think he has potential to be the funniest character!**

**oOo-Kaede Higuchi-oOo: Hehe. Yeah, Shadow and Hidan got pwned! Poor Hidan is especially getting his ass handed to him. I hope Amy still has copies of those pictures somewhere…**

**Kitsune Super Fox: Tails likes almost everybody and I picture him as being a really friendly drunk. So, yeah. I think he really does love Hinata. Who wouldn't?**

**Luigi2024: Thanks for the critique. I'm really pushing hard to make sure things don't feel too rushed. Hopefully, this chapter will love up to the others.**

**The Blue Zephyr: Yes, that was pretty disturbing, wasn't it? There are some pretty disturbing scenes in this story. I hope you enjoy them. ;)**

**Kage Model ZX: I've given a lot of thought to a Super Sonic Rasengan type thing. Thanks so much for reviewing! Glad you like how it's all panning out.**

**Insane Squirrel: I hope this chapter didn't take too long in coming. Life is just so busy and I want to avoid the tendency to rush my writing, so it doesn't get sloppy. Sorry for killing Scourge. I needed some deaths and I don't see him really being in this story at all, so I killed him off. Misa-Misa is from Death note. I felt like adding in a crossover cameo. Drunk Tails is awesome, even if it does make him a little out of character. Oh, wel…it's still fun. I'm keeping Sasuke's fate in the dark right now. You never know what might happen with him.**

**Morph: I know the changes I made with the Chaotix was a little weird. It was my attempt to make them more into real detectives, I guess. Charmy being a CSI guy sounded funny to me. Fiona was killed by Hidan's voodoo curse. If you've been following the Shippuden episodes, you know what it can do. Thanks for reviewing.**

**Blue Mage Quartet: Wow! Better than the source material? Glad you liked all the humor. It's definitely a genre I've been working hard to get good at. Thanks for the comments!**

**Chapter XVII: Lightning Strikes in the Darkest Places**

A lone hawk circled around the mountain range. Its piercing cry echoed across the cloudless blue sky. Near the summit, one two tailed fox slowly and painstakingly climbed his way up the tallest, most jagged mountain on South Island. The blazing desert sun was murder on his fur.

His new sensei has some pretty tough training methods, Tails realized. And this was only the first day of his training. Following his new sensei's instructions, Tails had to scale the rock alone. No help, no machines, no Kyuubi chakra, and absolutely no flying. He wasn't allowed to fly unless he fell to an otherwise certain death. And if that happened, Tails would have to go back to the bottom and start the climb all over again. He began the climb early in the morning before the sun came out. It was now early afternoon where the blistering sun was at its strongest and brightest. After hours of grueling mountain climbing, the top was at last in sight. When he made his way up to the summit, Tails was bruised, tired, and thirsty. Every single muscle ached and his heart pounded furiously in his chest.

"I…made it…"

Meeting him at the top was a spectacular view of the countryside, along with the masked ninja that was his new sensei, chilling back with the green covered book in his hand. At the sight of his new bright orange little pupil reaching the top, Kakashi closed the book and smiled. "Ah. You made it at last."

Tails dropped to his hands and knees, blowing hard and panting heavily with his tongue hanging from his mouth. "Why…did you make me do that?" he struggled to get the words out.

"It's for building strength and stamina," Kakashi answered, helping the kit up to his feet. "These things are necessary for serious ninja training. If you can't conquer this mountain, you can't expect to conquer your enemies, so expect to be dealing with a lot of pain during your training. Besides, you're so soft and pudgy," he gave a sharp poke to Tails' white belly. "I'm not saying you need to build abs of steel, but there's a lot we could improve upon. Your flight endurance, for instance. It takes less than one minute before you get tired and have to float down. That could get you killed easily. We should try and raise that time limit to fifteen minutes at least."

"I can barely even move my tails now," Tails whined. "No way can I do any flying."

Kakashi shook his head." I don't believe it. Don't tell me this little mountain tired you out. Not to brag or anything, but I easily climbed it with one hand."

"I've never climbed anything this high without flying," Tails huffed.

"You can't be exhausted yet," said Kakashi. "Doesn't it feel great knowing you conquered this mountain all by yourself? Don't you feel exhilarated?"

"I feel dead tired," Tails finally plopped to the ground on his back.

"Well, don't drop dead yet," said Kakashi. "Not for another few moments, anyway. You're about to experience one of the most exciting moments of your life, so try to stay with me."

Tails pulled a water bottle from his pack and swallowed the whole thing down in a single gulp. "Now am I gonna find my element?"

"That part will be easy," Kakashi nodded and revealed a small piece of paper. "This slip of paper comes from specially chakra saturated trees. They're extremely sensitive to the chakra signals of those who touch it. This will reveal whatever elemental power you have lying inside you."

"How does it work?"

"If you touch it and it burns, then you have Fire. If it gets soaked, you have Water. If it crumbles to dust, you have Earth. If it crinkles, you have Lightning. If it slices in half, you have Wind. Watch what happens when I do it," Kakashi held the paper between his fingers. In a second, it crinkled and scrunched up into a ball.

"Now it's your turn. Hold this and focus just a tiny amount of chakra. We'll see what happens."

Tails took the paper and channeled a tiny bit of his chakra through his fingers. After a second, the paper crinkled into a tiny ball in his hand.

Tails sensed the big smile behind Kakshi's mask. "How about that? You possess the power of Lightning."

Tails nodded quietly, but frowned a little as he stared at the horizon with a far off look in his eyes.

"You have the same element as me," Kakashi went on. "That gives us a great advantage. Not only will we be able to work a lot faster, but you know, there are some very powerful techniques associated with this element."

"Uh-huh," Tails said softly and dropped the crunched up paper to the ground.

"You don't look happy, Tails. Is something wrong?"

He shook his head. "No. It's just that when you told me about the five elements, this is the last one I expected. I thought it would be Wind or something I like, but lightning scares me. You know how Sonic is with water? Well, that's how I am with lightning. Whenever I see it, I try to run away and hide. I really didn't think I'd get this one."

"I'm not surprised, actually," said Kakashi. "The affinity for lightning often comes to those with very high intelligence. Guys like us have a lot of electricity running around in between our ears. It was my first element, and Sasuke also had the talent for it. In fact, I taught him the jutsu that I'm going to teach you right now. I'm sure you've seen this at least a few times."

Kakashi rapidly threw his hands together in a series of seals, then held out one hand. A thousand lightning bolts gathered together to form a raw surge of electricity in his hand that looked ready to leap out of his hand any second. Tails quickly stepped back and shielded his eyes. The last couple times he saw that jutsu, he was way too close.

"This is **Chidori. (Thousand Birds)** With this technique, you gather a concentrated amount of lightning chakra into one hand. Because it's naturally very unstable, it tries to scatter, creating an effect that sounds like a thousand birds chirping together. It can grant you an unbelievable increase in speed and power. When I developed this technique, I was known for being able to cut a lightning bolt in half. The techniques that I built around this one like the Raikiri are even more powerful. You'll learn those too."

"How do I start?" Tails' enthusiasms started to return. If he learned how to control lightning, it would mean that he would never have to be afraid of lightning again.

"There are two steps. One, you gather the chakra together and shape it with your mental control. Two, apply the element of lightning to it. That's nature manipulation. Right now, all your chakra is flowing through the coils running through your body. Your job now is to take control of that chakra and bring it into your hand."

"Okay," Tails held out his hand and focused, sending a blue aura of chakra radiating down his arm where it collected into his hand.

"Good. In that raw state, your chakra is pretty harmless, so now you have to concentrate on transforming it into lightning nature by picturing the lightning nature in your mind."

At first, nothing happened, but then Tails picked up a faint buzzing sound. Seconds later, and the aura of chakra started to crackle and dance in his hand like lightning. Tails flinched and tilted his head as far away from his hand as he could. Kakashi picked up a slight whimper from the kit's lips.

"Don't do that. You can't be afraid. You'll never get it if you turn away like that," Kakashi lectured.

"Y-you sure I'm not gonna get zapped?" Tails asked shakily.

"If you mess up, the lightning might get out of control and fry you to a crisp," he said in a bored tone. "Try not to let that happen."

"What!? Tails leapt into the air and tried to shake off the electricity on his hand as if there was a live bomb attached to his hand. "How do I turn this thing off?"

"I'm only joking. I just had to see the look on your reaction. Honestly, I wouldn't start you off with a jutsu that had a high risk of killing you. There'll be plenty of time for things like those later," he mused. "Chidori is only lethal in its completed state. It can't hurt you, so stop worrying so much."

Tails went back to his jutsu and stared directly at the pulsing charge building in his hand. Kakashi was visibly impressed as Tails continued on for a good five minutes, adding more chakra, making the charge bigger and brighter. The blue chakra started to glow and there was a loud crackling before it all fizzled out.

"I lost it…" Tails hung his head low, his face the very picture of dejection.

"Don't get depressed so easily," Kakashi said, patting the kit on the shoulder. "Give it time. This is a high level jutsu, after all. Even the Fourth Hokage was slow mastering some of his techniques. He didn't even finish them all."

"Do you have any other tips?" Tails looked up at his sensei hopefully.

"You want advice?" Kakashi put his hand to his chin as he thought it over. "Well…a good way to increase your ability to master your element is to train in a location where that particular energy is high in abundance. If you were a water type, you'd get a lot of benefit by training by the sea. The same goes for all the others. You might get some interesting results if you train in the middle of a raging thunderstorm."

Tails' eyes had gone wide and his mouth dropped open comically.

"Not for you, eh? You don't have to do it if you don't want to," Kakashi assured him calmly. "I'm just letting you know that it's something to try. Don't feel you have to rush it, though. I know you want to save Sonic, but you don't have to do anything so extreme. Just concentrate on your training everyday and you'll be fine. I created the Chidori because its shape is easier to manipulate than others. That's why it's a good jutsu for you to start."

"But when do you think it'll be finished. When am I gonna be ready to go?"

"Too early to tell. Not that it matters. Remember, you still need to figure out a way to somehow open up a portal that'll get you out of Mobius."

"I've been thinking about how to do that," said Tails. "I drew up these blue prints to build something, but the only way to really make this work is if I had the Sharingan."

"That's not going to happen. My Sharingan is still weak and damaged, so you can't use mine. Even if you could somehow synthesize the Sharingan's abilities, you'll never unlock its true potential unless you have an Uchiha who can use it."

"Don't worry," Tails said with a clever smirk. "I know a great place where I can get the Sharingan."

* * *

When the evil Dr. Robotnik was captured and his prisoners freed by Shadow the Hedgehog, Mobius took on a festive atmosphere, celebrating the return of so many people back to their homes and families. No place felt this joy the greatest as in Emerald Leaf Village. Being the most peaceful and defenseless zone on Mobius, Robotnik saw the place as easy pickings, so when he was defeated, over half the inhabitants of the zone returned home.

Vanilla Rabbit, herself once a victim of Robotnik's invasions until Sonic saved her, chose to celebrate Robotnik's defeat with the best way she knew how. She baked pies. Today, she made a blueberry pie. Her daughter, Cream suggested she make it blue as a sign of hope for Sonic to come back soon. She set it by the windowsill to let it cool. The crisp, afternoon breeze sent the pie's sweet, tangy aroma wafting across her garden and through the village where it caught the attention of anyone nearby, including two cloaked men hidden in the bushes just outside.

"That pie smells good, un. I think I'll grab a peace after we're done here."

"Ahhh," Tobi let out a pleasant sigh as he watched the colorful butterflies flutter passed him. "This is a really nice place, Senpai, but what are we doing here? Leader-sama never told us to come here. Shouldn't we be looking for Tails?"

"That's why we're here," said Deidara. "We've been going at it all wrong, un. Capturing this jinchuuriki, that is. Chasing after Tails and dragging him back is going to take too much work. As crazy as it sounds, he's a dangerous enemy. Instead of going after him, it makes a lot of sense to get him to come to us, un."

"How do we do that, Senpai?"

"Instead of trying to capture little Tails, we go after his little friends, un," they poked their heads out of the bushes and saw their target, a little six-year-old bunny rabbit. Cream the Rabbit sat in her garden, happily humming a tune to herself while picking flowers. Her pet Chao, Cheese, fluttered around her playfully. "This way, we can lure him into the place of our choosing. The bunny over there is one of his close friends. When he finds out that this girl is in danger, Tails will have no choice but to come and face us. And that's when we'll have him, un."

"So all I have to do is grab her and run, right?"

"Yeah. Even for you, this task should be a no-brainer, but if something goes wrong, you just use this bomb, un," Deidara molded a bit of clay in his hand and placed the finished creation in his partner's gloved hand. It was made in the form of a little bunny rabbit.

"A Chappy the Rabbit bomb? Aww…Senpai, that's so cute!"

Deidara blushed slightly. "I thought the situation called for it, un. Now go get that bunny. Akatsuki's success depends on you."

"Yeah! Get the bunny," Tobi repeated the mantra as he snuck his way out of the bushes. "Get the bunny…"

Tobi very carefully snuck across the bed of flowers, trying very hard not to step too hard and crush any of the pretty flowers. From behind the shrubbery, Deidara waited and watched. Cream, oblivious to their presence, continued to pick and select her favorite wildflowers.

"Gosh, there are a lot of little blue blobs buzzing around," Tobi observed the many chao flying around. "I wonder what's their deal."

"Those are called chao," explained Deidara. "They're creatures composed of chaos energy and this place is a Chao Garden. The rabbit likes to raise them. Don't worry about them, though. They're completely harmless, un."

"Today's a very special day, Cheese," Cream said to her favorite chao. "Tails said he's coming to visit today. I haven't seen him in so long."

Anything that made Cream also made Cheese happy, but the chao's excitement dropped rapidly when he felt and unsettling presence coming closer with intent.

"Chao, Chao, Chao!" Cheese cried, tapping anxiously on Cream's shoulder.

"What's wrong, Cheese? Is everything okay?"

Creams noticed a strange shadow behind her. She turned around and there crouched on the ground before here was the man in the orange mask. With the dark colors of his cloak, he looked strangely out of place in the midst of the bright and vibrant colors of his surroundings.

"Hello, Cream. My name is Tobi. I'm uh…a friend of Tails," the masked man waved. His voice was reasonable and pleasant sounding. "My, those are some nice flowers you picked there. Who are they for?"

"They're for my friends," Cream replied a little nervously. "They're coming over today and I want to give them something special." Cream wasn't sure if she should be talking to this masked stranger, especially since her mother warned never to do that, but Tobi seemed nice and harmless enough.

"Do you think I could pick a few?" asked Tobi. "I have some friends too. One of them is an artist, so I'm sure he would love them."

"Psst…go grab her now, un," whispered his senpai from inside the shrubbery.

"Chao! Chao! Chao! Chao!" Cheese shouted repeatedly, pulling on Cream's dress. Real horror filled his eyes.

"What's his problem?" Tobi asked.

"Cheese is very frightened," Cream stood up, clutching her flowers tightly. "He-he says that you're bad man."

"Oh he does, does he?" Tobi flicked Cheese in the face, sending the annoying little blue chao flying and before Cream could blink, Tobi seized her arm. Hard.

"Ow! Let me go!" Cream cried.

"Don't struggle," Tobi said. His friendly voice now gone. "You're now a prisoner of Akatsuki."

"You won't get away with this," Cream struggled to break his grip, but his grip was surprisingly strong. "Even if Mr. Sonic isn't around anymore, someone will come. Tails will come and save me."

"Bingo! That's the idea," Tobi started to pull the rabbit away when without warning, a blue blur smacked him across the face. The blow was hard enough to make Tobi release his hold on Cream's arm and sent him staggering.

"Chao! Chao!" The little blue thing with the red ribbon dove down and angrily slammed Tobi in the face again.

"Owww!" Tobi shouted, hunched over and clutching his head in pain. "You little blue turd. That was so not cool! I dare you to try that again. I'll take on anything you got."

All of a sudden, an entire army of chao rose up and swarmed around the orange masked nin. Surrounding him on all sides, they hovered menacingly around him. Tobi felt himself starting to sweat under his mask.

"Uh-oh, Senpai, I've got a big problem here," Tobi released the rabbit and gingerly stepped back. A twig on the ground snapped under his foot. All the once, the chao flew at him in a berserking rage.

"Go get that big, stinking doo doo head, Cheese!"

"I'm not a big, stinking doo doo head!" Tobi cried. He tried to make a run for it, trampling all over the flowerbeds in the process. Enraged, the chao hailed down upon him, attacking and pounding Tobi mercilessly. One chao pulled at his hair. Another clung on to him and delivered rapid punches into his face. One of them flew up from behind and tried to pry his mask off while the others pulled and tore at his cloak.

Cream was amazed at how every chao came to her defense. She had never heard a chao growl before.

"AIEEEEEE! Senpai! They're everywhere!" he screamed and tripped over another group of chao grabbing his legs to peg him down.

"Tobi! Get out of there before they eat you alive!" shouted Deidara.

Tobi swatted away the chao and ran for his life out of the Rabbits' garden and into the village streets with the pack of chaos chasing after him like a swarm of angry killer bees. As he frantically tried batting away the furious chao, he noticed Cream's bicycle lying by the side of her house.

"Ah, the perfect getaway," he hopped on it and sped away.

"Hey! He stole my bike!" Cream cried, pointing to the Akatsuki member racing down the street on a pink little girl's bike with the chao in hot pursuit.

Ding Ding rang the bike's bell. "Out of the way! Out of the way! This is an emergency!" yelled Tobi, dinging the little bell as he rode past some very confused pedestrians on a bike that was way too small to support him. "Wait. Senpai gave me that bomb in case something went wrong. Where'd I put it?" he searched his cloak as he pedaled. "I hope I didn't drop it. Here it is. Eat this, pixies!"

"Chao?" Cheese meanwhile, stopped chasing and hovered curiously over the little clay rabbit left in the street. Figuring it would be best to give back whatever came from the Akatsuki, Cheese picked it up and dropped the clay rabbit right into the bike's basket with Tobi unawares.

"I can't wait for the explosion. Now what was the word I have to say to make it explode? Senpai says it all the time…Cuts, Cats, Catsup, Kazoo, Oh, I remember! KATSU!"

There was a loud explosion that shook the entire village block. It sent a burnt, ash covered Tobi sailing up high into the air flailing and screaming, "Senpaiii!"

The chao all started to laugh. Cream, although shaken up a little from the loud blast, started to giggle along with them. The broken shards of Cream's demolished bike fell back to the earth, but Tobi was nowhere to be seen. If Tobi fell back down, Cream couldn't find him, but that she didn't care. The evil ninja from Akatsuki was gone. That was all that mattered.

Still hidden in the bushes, Deidara shook his head sadly. "Another failed mission. I knew he'd screw up. At least he tried, un. Maybe I can at least steal the pie," Deidara made a grab for a piece of the coveted pie and carefully snuck away.

"Thank you for all your help, chao," Cream said, hugging as many chao as her small arms could hold. "I don't think that weird meanie will come back and bother us ever again. My bike blew up, but that's okay. Maybe Tails can build me a new one."

"Cream, dear," Vanilla called out. "What was all that commotion coming from outside? Are you all right?"

"Everything's fine, Mommy," Cream called back, smiling brightly to reassure her mother.

"Well, then come inside," she said in a worried tone. "I heard there are some strange people prowling the area. I don't want you to get in any trouble."

"Coming," Cream started to head back, but Cheese tapped her on the back.

Chao!" Cheese exclaimed, pointing towards the sky.

"What is it this time, Cheese? Is someone else coming?"

Cheese nodded. Cream followed the chao's gaze and saw that someone indeed was coming, but this time she recognized who it was.

It was Tails in his Tornado.

"Here's Cream's house. We're here, everyone," Tails announced to all the passengers on his plane, Shadow on the top of the biplane and Amy and Kakashi seated in the back.

"Cream's house? That's where you're gonna open up a portal to find Sonic?" Amy asked. "Are you sure?"

"Yup. This is where I'm gonna get what I need," Tails said as he parked the Tornado in front of the house. "I'll explain it all in a second."

"Why do you insist on flying around in this old relic?" Shadow grumbled as he jumped off. "Your plane goes a lot faster in its Mecha Kyuubi form. Why don't you just fly it like that from now on?"

"There's a buncha reasons," Tails said, ticking off points on his fingers. "Number one, because I like the feel of flying my Tornado more. I'm gonna save the Kyuubi form for big battles and stuff. Number two, Cream and Vanilla still don't know about me and Kyuubi and I don't want them to find out. If I come flying down in a demon fox mech, they'll freak out."

"Why bother? You know they'll find out soon, anyway."

"I know," Tails agreed, "but it's the kind of thing I have to break to them gently."

"Good morning, Miles," Vanilla appeared in the doorway, smiling politely. "Look, Cream. Your friends are here to see you. It's Miles, Shadow, Amy, and…" she stopped when he saw the unidentified masked man with the odd haircut.

"Hatake Kakashi. I'm Tails' new sensei."

"Oh, you're Tails' teacher?" Vanilla asked curiously. "How nice. What exactly do you teach?"

"I teach him ninjutsu," he said simply.

Vanilla blinked. That explains the mask, she guessed.

"Wow!" Cream hurried up to him with a big smile on her face. "You're really doing ninja training? Are you really good, Tails?"

"Actually, he's horrible. One of my worst students ever," Kakashi said dryly.

Tails laughed uneasily and scratched the back of his head, blushing with embarrassment. Cream was so ecstatic, she didn't notice at all. "Mother, do you think I could learn to be a ninja too?"

"Heavens no!" Vanilla answered immediately. "I will not allow my six year old daughter to go running around throwing sharp, dangerous weapons at people."

"I was already leading squads in missions when I was her age. It's always possible," said Kakashi.

"I see…Cream, why don't you offer Mr. Hatake and the others some cookies?" Vanilla suggested, clearly trying to change the subject. "They should be ready by now."

"Yeah! Wait till you taste these cookies, Tails. You'll love them." Cream slipped on her oven mitts and ran into the kitchen, returning seconds later with a steaming hot tray of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

"You know, Vanilla, not all ninjas go around throwing shuriken and kunai. There are also cooking ninjas. Your daughter might fit nicely into that role."

"That'd be awesome. Cream makes the best cookies on the entire planet," Tails said as he snagged a cookie and popped it into his mouth. It was hot and chewy and the chocolate chips melted into his mouth "They're so good. So good…" Tails said, licking some chocolate goo off his muzzle.

**"Good?"** the Kyuubi's voice rumbled inside the kit's head like an erupting volcano. **"These are fucking fantastic!"**

Of all times, he never expected the Kyuubi to show up now. Tails now stood at once in Cream's house and at the same time, in the sealed prison of the Kyuubi, speaking to a voice that only he could hear. "You could taste them?"

"Everything you can sense and feel, so can I, be it pain or pleasure. Now eat the rest of them. All of them! I'm hungry," demanded the Kyuubi.

Tails tried to resist the command, but Kyuubi's will was just too strong. Tails yanked the whole pan out of Cream's hands and violently gobbled down every single cookie, down to the last crumb.

**"Oh! That was so good,"** Kyuubi grinned in as happy as the Kyuubi was, that was not how everybody on the outside felt. They all stared at the now empty pan, most looking very pissed. Vanilla stared in shock at how such a well-mannered boy could become such a glutton. Cream looked at him with wide eyes, full of hurt.

"Tails! You're such a pig. I can't believe you ate all those cookies. That's not like you."

"Chao Chao!" Cheese added angrily.

Tails just stared speechless. What am I supposed to say? Sorry about that, Cream. My inner demon kitsune was hungry and he took over? Kyuubi meanwhile, was laughing evilly.

"It's not funny, you dumb fox. You got Cream mad at me. That's never happened before."

**"Oh, I know how we can solve that problem,**" Kyuubi said as he chuckled darkly. **"Why don't you eat her, too? I'm still hungry."**

Tails was now looking very flustered. "What? You mean Cream? That's crazy. I can't eat her."

**"The cookies were good, but not enough. Now I crave meat! Like a nice, juicy rabbit,"** Kyuubi's massive tongue rolled out of his mouth and smacked his grinning lips. **"Eat the bunny. She's young and tender. I'll bet she'll be delicious!"**

Tails did feel the urge rising up inside. His canines grew bigger and sharper and he started to feel hungry for some meat. "No way! I don't care how good you say she tastes. I can't do it."

**"Don't be so mean, Tails. Poor old Kyuubi has been locked up in his cage for sixteen years without a morsel of food and now you would deprive me? You don't even have to cook her. Just grab her and sink your teeth into her neck. Eat her alive!"**

"I can't…"

**"Eat her…Eat her…Eat her,"** Kyuubi chanted slowly, until Tails could take no more.

"I'M NOT EATING CREAM!" Tails shouted out at the top of his lungs. Dead silence throughout the house followed. Everyone stood frozen in place. Tails found himself in the center of a lot of vacant stares.

"Tails?" Amy finally broke the silence. "Are you…feeling all right? Do you want to step outside for a minute?"

"Actually, I do," Tails nodded nervously. "I'm not feeling so good. I gotta get some air."

Kakashi shrugged. "After pounding all those cookies, how could you not feel a little sick?"

"I think he's sick in the head," Shadow murmured.

"Oh, my," Vanilla sighed. "I'll just go make some more. The poor dear must be worried sick about Sonic. I wouldn't blame him if he started acting strangely."

In the Chao garden, Tails paced back and forth rapidly. "Stupid Kyuubi," Tails growled under his breath. "This is not a good time."

"Come on, kit. You can't just have me come out whenever there's a big fight going on. That's not fair to me. You know something? I think we're ready for another tail. Don't you want to see what new powers you'll get?" A deep, dark killing intent rose up inside him and bringing the scent of blood and death into the air.

"So it's happening again," Kakashi said under his breath as he watched Tails fight it out with himself, killing intent of the worst kind radiating out of the little fox. He paid close attention to the red mists swirling inside the kit's blue eyes. He instantly appeared in front of Tails and put his hand to the fox's forehead.

"Calm down, Tails," he instructed softly. "Breathe. Have a seat. Sniff the flowers. Take a drink," he poured a bit of sake into a saucer and gave it to Tails.

Tails drank up and then took some deep breaths, breathing more slowly each time. "Thanks, Kakashi-sensei. I feel better already."

"Good. Now before you get completely wasted, why don't we talk about just what it is you wanted to show us here?"

"Oh, yeah. You're gonna like what I'm gonna show you, Kakashi-sensei. It's really cool."

Tails waited for everyone to come outside and then began his presentation. "Okay. So the reason I wanted to come here was because of Cream's Chao Garden. For those who don't know, these blue flying things are chao. They're essentially liquid entities whose life force stems from chaos energy. One of their special abilities is they can take on the features of any creature they touch and copy their abilities. This is because chaos energy has the ability to read other energy signals. I was thinking about this ever since I saw that the Uchiha's Sharingan also has the power to copy any ability it sees. Wherever that bloodline came from, somehow it can also read chakra signals. They both must have some similar properties the way their energies are aligned. Chaos energy is also really good at warping around time and space. It does that all the time."

"Hey, Mr. Science. I don't understand anything you're saying," Amy piped up. "How the hell is this helping us find Sonic?"

"Maybe it'll be easier if I just show you," Tails pulled out a kunai stained in blood. "This kunai has some of Sasuke's blood on it. Watch what happens when one of these chao touches it."

A single drop of blood fell onto the chao. Upon contact, its blue form warped into a human shape, growing dark hair and a set of blood red eyes set with three tomoes. When the transformation was complete, there was a tiny version of Sasuke scowling at everyone.

"It's a mini-Sasuke. It looks just like him." Kakashi observed. All he had left from his original chao form was the blue ball floating over his head and a pair of wings.

"Everyone, meet Sasuke Chao!" Tails smiled broadly, introducing the new chao species. Sasuke chao, however, did not smile. "The chao absorbed his DNA and copied it, making it a part of himself. He even has his own mini Sharingan."

"Chao," said Sasuke Chao. His voice sounded like a squeakier versions of Sasuke's.

"Wait, so anything that touches a chao, gets its features copied?" Amy asked.

"Yeah. Haven't you ever seen a Tails Chao before? Sometimes you get a full copy and sometimes only a partial copy. Sometimes it won't work at all. Since it's all chaos energy, it's impossible to predict."

"So how's this supposed to work? You have the Sharingan, but do you really think that chao's Sharingan is as strong as Itachi's?"

"Not yet," Tails replied, "but I think we can get the chaos to develop a Sharingan as powerful as Itachi's and then they can open up the gateway for us. The next step will be to reunite Sasuke Chao with the Master Emerald, since that's the place where all chaos come from."

Amy regarded the strange chao warily. "Tails? Are you sure it's safe to create a chao like that? He looks very unfriendly."

Tails looked down at the chao and saw that it was giving him a killing glare, eyes narrowed in a classic Sasuke stare. A very familiar cursed killing intent radiated from the little Sasuke.

"I guess he copied some of Sasuke's personality traits too, but I don't think he'll do anything bad. It's like a dark chao, that's all. As long as you don't provoke him or anything—"

Hmph," Shadow snorted in contempt and kicked the chao across the garden. The chao squealed as it sailed through the air until it smacked its back against the wall.

"Why did you do that, Shadow?" Tails demanded.

Shadow simply shrugged. "I didn't like the way it was looking at me."

"Don't do that. He's really mad now," Tails pointed to the little chao who was fluttering in the air again, eyes were bloodshot red with enough killing intent to make the chao explode.

"Who cares? What's the little bastard gonna do—"

Sasuke Chao snarled viciously and lashed out at Shadow in a blind rage, striking him in the face and grappled his neck, trying to strangle the hedgehog.

"Get off of me, you stupid pixie," Shadow made a grab for the rabid chao, but Sasuke flew out of his reach and started pelting the area with fireballs.

Tails shielded his head with his hands and dove for cover. "Everyone, watch out! He's got all of Sasuke's techniques!"

The fireballs spiraled outward, setting fire to the garden. The other chaos screamed in terror and flew everywhere, creating mass panic.

"He's burning the chao garden down!" Cream cried. "Cheese. Talk to Sasuke Chao and try to calm him down. Maybe he can understand you."

"Chao chao chao," Cheese flew up in front of Sasuke Chao and tried to speak peacefully in Chao language.

"Chao," Sasuke sneered in reply. His arm lit up with a chao sized Chidori. Before Cheese could react, Sasuke plunged his Chidori into Cheese's stomach. The little blue chao howled in agony as the lightning filled chakra surged through his body.

"CHEESE!" Cream wailed and ran to her chao's rescue.

"Chaoooooo!" the little bow tied chao moaned as it flopped to the floor in a smoky heap.

"That's it. I've had enough," Out came Shadow's gun. Shadow clicked, aimed, pulled the trigger, and casually blasted the chao away. Sasuke chao squealed and gave the hedgehog one last vengeful glare before it passed out.

"That felt good," he blew out the smoke from the gun with a very satisfied smile.

"Oh, Cheese," Cream picked up the unmoving body of her chao friend. "Speak to me, Cheese."

Shadow smirked in amusement. "Maybe his name should be "Grilled Cheese" from now on."

"You shouldn't be laughing Shadow," Amy fumed. "All this is your fault. If I had my hammer, I'd clobber you so hard!"

"Yes. Too bad you don't. Oh, that's right. I think I remember destroying it."

"Do you even understand what you did? Tails is trying his hardest to save Sonic and you're just messing around. Cream's garden is ruined and her chao is dead because of you."

"It's not dead," said Shadow. "Chaos have no vital organs and it's very easy to heal their wounds. I can regenerate both these chao easily."

Amy left Shadow alone and slipped a comforting arm around Cream. "Don't worry, Cream. Cheese will be just fine and I'll help you replant your chao garden."

"Well, that was very interesting. Tails, I think we should go before there are any more disasters," Kakashi started to gently push him in the direction of his plane. "We have to get back to training. If you can't get the Chidori, that chao is going to make you look bad."

* * *

Konoha's entrance gates were left wide open all day with shinobi going back and forth, running to and returning from missions. With the search for the chaos emeralds now underway, the place was busier than ever. That left the two guards at the gate, Izumo and Kotetsu to work overtime, doing one of the most boring jobs a chounin could be stuck with. They were glad when sundown came since that meant they could go home. Now the only people left standing at the gate were Gaara and Temari, who were about to head back to their home village of Suna, and Shikamaru who came to see them off.

"Are you gonna be all right with your fan gone?"

"It's not a problem," Temari said. "I can easily get another one built."

"That's troublesome," Shikamaru mumbled. "That means you'll still have something dangerous to swing at me whenever I feel like being lazy."

"Is that what you're going to do now as soon as I leave?" Temari asked in an aggravated tone. "You're just going to go back to cloud watching?"

"The clouds will clear my head," Shikamaru said with a relaxed smile. "They'll help me think up some new strategies. Taking these troublesome chaos emeralds into account, I need to reevaluate what future battles against Orochimaru might be like."

"I can help you with that, Shikamaru," said a frazzle haired, bespectacled girl who came up to the gate to join them. She wore a white lab coat and the nerdiest coke bottle glasses Temari had ever seen in her life, which she adjusted constantly. A habit that Temari right away found very annoying.

"Shikamaru, who is this?" Temari studied the odd looking stranger.

"Hello, I'm Shiho. I'm a researcher in Konoha's code breakers department. We've been studying the properties of the red chaos emerald Jiraiya-sama gave us. What we've found out was that it resonates a brilliant glow using a certain pattern of frequencies. Right now, we're trying to determine what those frequencies could mean."

"So you think the emerald is telling you something?" Shikamaru asked.

Shiho nodded as she fixed her glasses. "That's what we think. It would help us if you could take a look at it. Maybe you can find something."

"I don't know how much help I'm gonna be, but I'll give it a look. Just don't make me get too close to it. I'm afraid of what troublesome things might happen to me."

"Quit your complaining and do your job," Temari scolded. "Don't do it half assed either."

"Damn emeralds are too bright. They burn my eyes every time I look at them," Shikamaru squinted his eyes closed, feeling a sting in his eyes just thinking about them.

"We have special goggles so that you can observe the emeralds safely," Shiho promised. "If there's anything else you require, we can get it for you."

"See? They think of everything. Now you've run out of excuses," said Temari. "You'd better become a real man when I see you again."

"Let's go Temari. We're done here," said Gaara.

"Enjoy your date while it lasts. I'll be back soon," she said in a as a cloud of sand took to the two sand siblings into the air and whisked them away.

"A date? Where'd she get an idea like that?" Had Shikamaru turned around, he would have seen that Shiho's face was flushing red and she nervously tried to fix her hair. "All right. Let's go check out that rock and get this over with."

"Oi, Shikamaru," an orange blur appeared from up the road, bouncing along the rooftops Naruto came running down

"What brings you here, Naruto?"

"Where's Gaara and Temari? I thought they were going to be here."

"You're a little late for that. They already flew away."

"What do you mean they flew away?" Naruto demanded.

"Gaara flies. He and Temari rode away on a cloud of sand. You can't expect Gaara to just bounce around through the trees. He's the Kazekage, after all."

"Fine. Either way I gotta head to Suna," Naruto said. "I'll just go after them."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at him." Leaving the village just after returning? Sounds like a real pain."

"Ero-sennin is sending me there for part of my training," Naruto explained. "I'll see ya later."

"Wait up, Naruto. If you're going to Suna, I have some additional orders for you."

"Orders?"

Shikamaru's hand moved to the back of his neck as if going to scratch a bad itch. "It's not really the kind of thing I like to do, but I'm a chounin and you're a genin, so I can do that."

"So what do you want me to do?" Naruto asked.

"It's a good thing you're going to Suna. Remember that this whole mission started because a chaos emerald mysteriously appeared there. We still don't know why that happened. While you're training, try to investigate and see of there's anything troublesome going on down there."

"You want me to be a spy for the village?"

"I know it's a troublesome job, but I think there might be some secrets hiding under that sand that we don't know about. Just keep your eyes open while you're there. And stay close to Gaara. Kazekages have a tendency to spend a very short time in office. You don't want to let him die again."

"And let us know if you find any chaos emeralds!" Shiho added.

"I definitely will!" Naruto grinned threw out a thumb up then headed through the gate, starting on the long road towards the Wind Country. He noticed the sky suddenly darkening as thick stormclouds rumbled overhead, devouring the sun's rays. He stopped in the middle of the road to watch the fat clouds slowly and felt the leaves spiral around in the wind. At some point, he stopped moving and studied the clouds for a good while.

"Hey, Naruto. When did you get into the habit of watching the clouds, too?" Shikamaru asked. "You've been standing there for like ten minutes. I can't allow you to get as lazy as me."

"I was just thinking," Naruto said quietly. "This reminded me about Tails. The little guy is terrified of storms. I wonder how he's doing."

"You really think he'll show up, huh?"

"Of course he'll show up!" Naruto shot back. "He has to!"

"Heh. Yeah, I believe you. Tails has to come here. He is the King, you know."

"Huh?" Naruto scratched his head in confusion. "What do you mean? King of what?"

"Never mind "I was just thinking about something Asuma mentioned to me when we were playing shougi. I'll tell you more about it when you get back." Shikamaru stuffed his hands in his pockets and started to leave "Anyway, I gotta go talk to a rock. Hopefully, you're mission won't be as lame as mine."

Naruto grinned once more before turning and going on his way. "You say a lot weird things, Shikamaru, but you're still a kickass leader."

"I hope he manages to bring back all the chaos emeralds. It would be fascinating to put them all together and see how they interact with one another." Shiho smiled broadly as she dreamed about the possibilities.

"You look happy," Shikamaru noted. "Is this code breaking business really that exciting?"

"It is now," Shiho said and eagerly pulled Shikamaru in the direction of the lab. "Come on."

* * *

"Come on. Stay down," Tails complained and tried to push his rebellious hair down, but it always sprang right back up. A week had passed and Tails had spent every waking moment on learning the Chidori. After his last failed attempt and its disastrous results, Kakashi explained to Tails that he had used way too much chakra to the point where he couldn't hold it in one place anymore. Although he was lucky to be alive, Tails' fur went out of control, standing up on end, and crackling with static.

Later that day, Tails headed back to Cream's house to check and see if the chao were doing better. Cream was there playing with Cheese as he expected, but to his surprise, Sasuke Chao was peacefully hovering around the garden, minding his own business. It even frowned less.

"Cream's really good at raising chao. A little more time and she might get that chao to smile."

"Hey, Tails. How's the ninja training?" her eyes widened at his strange appearance. "What happened to you? Your fur's all puffy and standing up!"

So Tails told her the whole story of his training. "I was so close. I actually had the Chidori in my hand. It was so huge! I really had it…until it exploded in my face."

When she pictured the scene in her head, Cream burst out giggling. Tails only groaned and fell onto the ground, lying down amidst the flowers.

Seeing how miserable poor Tails looked, Cream held a hand to her mouth to stifle the giggling. "Aw, I'm sorry, Tails. I didn't mean to laugh at you. It's just you look so funny like that. Maybe we can fix this," she ran her hand through his fuzzy head, but recoiled away from a small zap. "There's still smoke coming off you. You look so hot and tired. Want some ice cream?"

"Sure. That'd be great," he said

"Great. I have mint chocolate chip because I know that's your favorite flavor," she said. "Sasuke Chao, do you want some ice cream, too?"

Sasuke Chao let out a "Hmph" and turned away to practice swinging his chao-sized sword.

"I guess that's a no. Oh, well. Be back in a second."

With a huge yawn, Tails turned his gaze to the sky and saw the clouds rolling by fast. "Man, I'm exhausted. Can't believe I actually got struck by lightning. I really hate this jutsu," Lost in thought, it took him awhile to notice that somebody was tapping on his shoulder. He turned around only to be in right smack in front of Naruto's grinning face.

"Naruto?" Tails sprang to his feet to get a good look at the last person he expected to see here.

"Chao!" Naruto exclaimed as he cheerfully handed Tails his ice cream cone.

No. It wasn't Naruto. It was a very tiny Naruto fluttering around with wings and an orange ball floating above him. It was a chao that looked exactly like him. After handing Tails his ice cream, the chao flew back to join up with dozens other Naruto Chao.

"Naruto Chao? Cream, where did all these guys come from?"

"Oh, those? It happened a little while ago when your friend Hinata came by and I showed her the Sasuke Chao and I told her how you evolved him. After that, I guess she had some DNA from Naruto on her, because all of a sudden, one of the chaos she touched changed to look like that. Then, Naruto-chao did these signs with his hands and poof, dozens of Naruto Chaos appeared everywhere. They're very wild, but they're lots of fun to have around."

"Weird. Where's Hinata now? Training with Shadow again?"

"Yeah. Shadow sorta dragged her away, but we had a lot of fun together. She said that even though she misses Naruto and all her friends, she's happy to be with you. I think she's such a special person."

"She really is," Tails agreed. "Hinata saved me from Akatsuki and because of that she got separated from the others and got stuck here. That's why I have to do everything I can to bring her back home."

"Yeah, she told me about that," Cream said. "I couldn't believe half the crazy stories she told me. She told me all about Naruto and all your other friends you met, and those horrible Akatsuki. They sound like the scariest people in the world. How come they want you so badly, Tails? What did you ever do to them?"

"I don't really know," He didn't consider that a lie. He had no idea why these guys want to collect all the bijuu. "Maybe it's because—"

Tails stopped when he heard a thundering crack and the sound of a thousand chirping birds. Sasuke Chao had lit up his Chidori and charged into battle against the Naruto Chaos.

"Oh, no. They're fighting again," Cream moaned. "They do this all the time. These chao don't get along very well."

As Sasuke charged, Naruto Chao and his clones formed a tiny Rasengan and met the Uchiha chao's Chidori head on. They collided in a mini explosion, throwing them backwards.

"Bad Sasuke Chao!" Cream ran to the chao and pulled him away from the others. "Stop picking fights with Naruto Chao."

The Naruto Chao watched and snickered amongst themselves, wearing their foxy grins.

"Naruto Chao, if you promise to stop fighting, I'll get you some ramen, okay?" Cream offered.

"Chao, dattebayo!" the Naruto chao team leapt into the air and cheered, forgetting all about their fight with Sasuke Chao.

"Wow, Cream. You're really good at raising chao," Tails said.

"Hinata told me that ramen would be a good idea. I'll go get some to feed Naruto Chao. He likes it a lot. Be back soon."

Tails breathed a sigh of relief when Cream led those loud Naruto chaos into the house. He was yearning for a little bit of peace and quiet, to be alone with his thoughts. Now alone with his ice cream, Tails closed his eyes and took a bite out of his cone. "Mmmm. Ice Cream is good. It's so nice and cold…" As soon as Tails tasted that sweet icy cold mintiness, he took all his burdens, his cares, his worries, and fears and let them go. This was training too, Kakashi taught him. In addition to everything else, Kakashi taught Tails how to meditate to sharpen his mind and help him focus. He closed his eyes and tried to think about nothing else, but to live in the moment.

He didn't know if it was sleep or a trance that took him, but he felt like as if a deep darkness come over him and lifted him out of the world. When he opened his eyes, he saw the world was changed. He wasn't in Cream's garden anymore. He was somewhere very far away, standing in the midst of an empty plain of ice. The wind howled across the expanse of ice and snow. A world of endless blue and white.

Tails walked through the snowly plains, his every footstep was immediately blown away by the ghostly winds. It would be very easy to get lost in this place, wherever I am, Tails thought. He looked to the sky and saw the daylight fading fast. Right before his eyes, the sky washed from a perfect blue, to violet, to ebony. Just when it got so dark that Tails couldn't see his own hand in front of him, the night lit up with the northern lights twisitng and stretching spectacular bands of light across the heavens. Cold fire in every hue casted its glow over the icy realm.

"Wow…what kind of place is this? Where am I?"

"You're in your head, Tails," whispered the answer from the wind.

"I didn't exactly expect an answer. I guess this means I'm in a mental realm like when I go into the Kyuubi's seal. This place is a lot nicer, though."

"There are more places inside your head than just the Kyuubi's prison," came that whispering voice again. "The Demon Fox's voice cannot be heard here, for we now exist now in a separate realm in your mindscape."

"We? Who are you?"

A mysterious figure stepped out of the windswept mists. It was a slim figure clad in blue robes and a white mask covering his face. The stranger was obviously a ninja. Tails was sure that every new person he was going to meet would be some kind of ninja.

"I've seen you before…" Tails started to say.

"Yes. You have," the stranger removed his mask to reveal a young face. His flowing black hair streamed freely in the snowy winds.

"I remember you. You're that ghost I saw the last time it snowed. Haku, wasn't it?"

"You remember my name," Haku said, smiling pleasantly. "I am glad. I spoke to you and Naruto before to tell warn you of the oncoming threat you will face, and to offer my skills and abilities to aid you in your mission."

"Is this gonna happen every time I eat ice cream? How how long have I had ghosts living in my head, anyway?" Tails asked.

"Ever since my death, my spirit was sent to dwell here, inside you. Time flows differently here, but by your count, I must have been dead for about three years now. You should know about it. Especially since your sensei was there as well as Naruto. They never told you about that?"

Tails shook his head.

"I was very successful hunter nin. Alongside Zabuza, I killed many. Zabuza and I died together on our last mission three years ago."

"Zabuza? The guy with the big cleaver sword?" Tails remembered that mammoth zanbatou all to well. The thing nearly took his head clean off.

"Yes. You once held his sword. It's a powerful weapon. With that sword, he was able to slay hundreds, and I helped him," he added with a tinge of sorrow. "We were comrades, very much like you and Sonic, except that we didn't fight for peace. Maybe that's why I am prevented from going to Heaven. I must stay here until I can find a way to fix the wrongdoings of my past."

"You're a prisoner?" Tails asked, frowning. "When did my head become a jail for spirits?"

"Don't make it sound like a bad thing," Haku said, smiling again. "I can't think of a better way to repent for my sins than by doing whatever I can to help you."

"But why did you come to me? What do I have to do with you?"

"Similar souls attract one another. Like you, I was born with a gift that marked me as different. I was alone in the world, until Zabuza found me. As alone as the two of us standing in this plain of ice. But that's not the only reason I'm here. To redeem myself, I must help you defeat the dreaded Akatsuki so that we can at last find peace for our worlds. That peace depends entirely on you. Either we defeat the Akatsuki, or they smother the lands with the bloodiest war in history."

"You know who the Akatsuki Leader is and what he wants, don't you?" Tails asked, eyes growing suspicious.

Haku nodded in the affirmative, but said nothing.

"Answer me!" Tails demanded as he grabbed onto Haku's robes. "You have to tell me!"

"That's not important right now," Haku brushed the fox's hands off his robes. "Just realize that the Akatsuki organization is more complex than you might think. But I can tell you that they are moving faster and you'll need to act quickly. I'll show you how to finally master that jutsu you're learning. I know about it quite well," Haku moved his hand to his chest. "After all, it's the technique that killed me."

"Okay. Show me what I need to know."

"What I'm going to show is something that belongs in the domain of truly genius ninjas, but I believe you can do it. Even if you never had the Kyuubi, you could still become a genius ninja."

"So what is it?"

"Did Kakashi ever mention that you could perform jutsu one handed? It's a powerful skill, allowing you to go faster and it frees your movements. You can fight with your other hand, or even use another jutsu simultaneously. Naturally, it makes performing that jutsu much harder. You'll need to squeeze out every ounce of your brainpower.

Tails' ears flattened in a perplexed look. "I don't know about this. This is just gonna make my Chidori take even longer to master."

"It's worth it. I learnt how to do this because I knew it would be helpful to Zabuza. You should try it. Think of how much more effective you can be at protecting your friends just by freeing one hand. Just think about protecting those people precious to you. That what will truly make you strong."

The next moments passed by quickly as Haku demonstrated how certain Zodiac signs were combined with only one hand and how to direct the flow of chakra. Tails was so caught up in practicing the seals that he didn't even notice a huge snowy fog descending upon them.

"That's my sign to leave, Tails," Haku said. "Farewell. Now that you know this realm exists, you can come back here anytime. When you return, I'll be here, waiting for you," and then the boy's voice slowly faded away in the winds.

"Tails?" a different voice called out to him. It was Cream's.

"Huh?" Tails opened his eyes and found himself back in Cream's backyard with the bunny shaking him to get up.

"You were spaced out," Cream said. "You didn't even finish your ice cream."

"Sorry, I must've been really deep in thought," Tails said and made up for lost time by finishing off the ice cream in a few quick bites. "Ah! Brain freeze!" he clutched his head in pain.

Cream broke out in another fit of giggling. "You didn't have to do that. You can go back to daydreaming if you want. I just came back because I got a present for you," she placed a package covered n orange wrapping and tied with a blue ribbon.

"A present for me? Wow! What is it?"

"You've been working so hard non-stop all week, so I made this for you. I hope you like it."

Tails tore open the package and glimpsed at the gift that laid inside.

"This is—"

In his hands, Tails held a long red cloth, when fully unraveled, he saw a brand new shiny Konoha forehead protector set in the middle.

"I thought you should have it. Try it on."

A pair of Naruto chaos flew over holding up a mirror for Tails. He tied the hitai-ite behind him, fitting the spiraling leaf symbol perfectly over his eyes. He tied it tight, leaving two strands of slack fluttering behind him in the breeze.

"Do-do you like it?" Cream asked.

Tails was positively beaming. His tails wagged non-stop in excitement. "It looks awesome. I feel like a real shinobi now. This is the best present ever! Thank you Cream!" he pulled her into a sudden hug. Cream's cheeks lit up brightly. "Thanks so much."

"Tails, you wanna eat her now?" Kyuubi popped up again.

Tails was about to tell the dumb fox to get lost—when a loud thunderclap came shattered their cinnection. Cream shrieked and buried herself deeper into Tails' arms.

"Tails. We should get inside. There's a storm coming," Cream pointed to the sky where some ominous black clouds rumbled across the darkening sky. A chill wind blew through Tails' fur and sent the leaves swirling around him.

"Looks like a bad one," Tails said. His tails started to twirl and lifted up into the sky, towards the clouds.

"Tails! Where are you going?" Cream called to the airborne kit. "That's a thunderstorm! I thought you hated lightning."

"I do!" Tails called back.

Tails flew back to the mountain where he began his training. By the time Tails arrived back at the base of the mountain, the sky was pitch black from the clouds and the piercing sheets of rain. During his flight over, the rain didn't let up. It only intensified. There was nothing to light his way except for the quick flashes of lightning.

"Good. I'm gonna need lots and lots of lightning," he told himself and began his long climb up the steep cliff. Right away, he realized this was going to be much harder than before. Slippery rocks, poor vision, torrential rain, and killer winds that could blow the small kit to the other side of Mobius easily. He banished those thoughts to the back of his mind and attacked the mountain with all his strength. As Tails raced his way up, the buffeting winds slammed his small body against the mountainside. Tails grunted, coughing up a spit of blood and pressed on.

"This isn't a storm. It's more like a hurricane!" but Tails was determined not to let anything stop him. "Kakashi-sensei will be shocked when he finds out what I've done."

"I easily climbed this mountain with one hand," his sensei's words returned to him.

A light flashed inside Tails' head. "If that's true, then I have to do the same thing." Tails let go with one of his hand. From this point on, he decided to climb the rest of the way up one handed. The other hand he used to practice forming one-handed seals. That's how it was for the rest of the climb. After several hours, Tails feared that his climbing arm would snap off. Finally, his hand anchored itself onto the mountaintop. The fox's body was banged up, bruised, and his fur was caked in mud. Despite the pain, or maybe even because of it, Tails couldn't remember ever feeling this alive.

Just above his head, the heavens unleashed their primal fury, igniting the sky with lightning. Right on the top of the mountain would've been a good spot, but Tails wasn't satisfied. He picked himself up and flew straight into the thundercloud.

"One more time!" With one hand, he executed the seals.

**"Chidori!"** Tails shut his eyes screamed against the thunderclap.

When the thunder died down, the sound of a thousand chirping birds filled his ears. When he opened his eyes, Tails found a huge surge of lightning crackling in the palm of his hand. The bolts of lightning reflected brightly in his amazed eyes. A lightning bolt streaked towards him. Tails' arm sliced through the air, cutting the bolt in half. Another clap of thunder and the lightning bolt exploded in front of Tails, scattering millions of flashing sparks into the darkness.

"I did it," Tails stayed there in the middle of the raging thunderstorm, calm as the eye of a hurricane.

* * *

The storm raged across the entire continent, soaking the earth to the core and shrouding the skies in thick, dark clouds. In the middle of a magnificent city filled with flashing lights, a lone figure stood at the edge of a large tower, draped in a black cloak that streamed behind him in the winds. He fixed his gaze towards the stormy heavens, paying no mind to the heavy pelting rain. The pounding rain made almost no mark in his spiky orange hair. A young woman soon joined him at his side. Her long flowing blue hair draped over her dark cloud patterned cloak. A large blue flower, the same color as her hair adorned her head.

"Pein. Everyone is here," she told him.

He nodded slightly to the woman and turned to greet the seven ninjas that made their appearance, all of them carefully displaying the rings on their hands.

Deidara with Sei (Azure) on his right index finger.

Hidan with San (Three) on his left index finger.

Konan with Byaku (White) on her right middle finger.

Kakuzu with Hoku (North) on his left middle finger.

Uchiha Itachi with Shu (Scarlet) on his right ring finger.

Hoshigaki Kisame with Minami (South) on his left ring finger.

Zetsu with Kai (Boar) on his right little finger.

Finally, Pein displayed on his right thumb the ring called Rei. (Zero)

"One of us is missing," said Konan.

"Tobi isn't here. He disappeared on our last mission, un," Deidara admitted.

The Leader inclined his head in acknowledgment, but said nothing.

Kisame chuckled. "Not such a big loss."

Against the city's dazzling neon lights below and the lightning above, the Akatsuki Leader's true face became revealed for all to see. His forehead protector bore the emblem of the Hidden Rain Village, crossed out. There were several small black piercings set into the bridge of his nose and a pair of sharp ones on his chin. There was not a part of his ears that wasn't adorned with an earring.

"It's not often that we all gather together in person," Pein finally spoke, "but I want to stress to you all the importance of the hour at hand

"There'd better be a good reason to call us out in the middle of this fucking downpour," Hidan snarled.

"Knock it off, Hidan," Kakuzu warned. "The Leader sees things through the rain. This must mean he has seen something valuable to us."

"Out there," Pein pointed straight towards the horizon where the black clouds erupted with lightning, "is our target. He's getting a lot stronger in a very short period of time."

"Yeah, I know all about it, un," said Deidara. "Hatake Kakashi's training him. It's not a problem, though. We can still get to him, un."

"I hope you're right. I'd rather somebody capture him once and for all. I don't want to have to bother doing it myself, but I will if I have to."

"Bullshit!" Hidan shouted and stepped in front of the leader. "If you're so high and mighty, then rather than wasting all our time, why don't you get off your lazy ass and just grab the fucking kitsune already?"

"There's no need for me to make a move just yet," said Pein calmly.

"There is now! Come on! If you're so high and mighty, let's see if you can kill me!"

"Come closer, Hidan," the Leader beckoned him with a finger. His other hand moved to a katana hidden in his cloak.

"Oh, I see where this is going. Yeah, I'll challenge you. I have my god backing me up. Who do you have?"

"I am God."

Pein slowly unsheathed his sword. A black blade emerged that radiated an aura of intense dread. The other Akatsuki members sank back, leaving their leader to face his challenger undisturbed.

"The hell you are," Hidan sank into a lunge position, his eyes murderous. He rushed toward Pein with his spear fully extended. Pein's sword flickered faster than the eye could blink, slicing raindrops in half. The spear fell apart in the priest's hands, split perfectly down the middle. Hidan looked behind him at the leader calmly watching, his katana's sharp end glistened with the surrounding lights.

"Itachi, can you see his movements?" Kisame whispered to his partner. Itachi just nodded.

Hidan found himself right in front of Pein's face. His eyes were intense, but not angry. "You can back out now and return to your place," said Pein, preparing to return his sword to his sheath.

"Gah! Fuck you!" Hidan made a grab for Kisame's swords, swiping them right off his back.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Kisame roared in outrage.

"I'll give them back," Hidan said, holding Zabuza's cleaver in one hand and Kisame's own Samehada in the other. When Hidan touched the handle of Samehada, the sword released its trap, a trick to make sure that no one but Kisame would ever be allowed to hold Samehada. Razor sharp spikes hidden in the hilt sprang out and dug deep into Hidan's hand. Hidan showed no sign that he cared. He barely glanced at the blood dripping through his fingers, washed away by the rain. His was totally absorbed in the Leader's circling eyes.

Hidan leapt high above and came lunging downward with both swords, the smile of victory already on his face. Pein's katana flashed out in an arc of pure blackness, countering the two giant swords. The force of his swing sent a screaming Hidan and flying through the air.

The two giant swords clattered to the ground at Kisame's feet, but Hidan remained floating in the air. Pein stood below, his face expressionless. His outstretched arm took command of the invisible force that held Hidan frozen in the sky.

"You are not a god, asshole!" Hidan screamed against the wind and rain. "It doesn't matter what kind of crazy powers you have behind those googly eyes. If you're a god, you're the god of sucking dick!"

Pein said nothing. He lifted his katana up, pointing it towards Hidan. The force of gravity shifted and pulled Hidan into a powerful vacuum, sending him sailing straight towards Pein. The black blade slipped straight into Hidan's head, through his brain, and exploded through the back of his skull. Hidan fell to his knees before his leader, impaled by the black katana. Blood flowed freely from his forehead, dripping down his body.

"If not for your immortality, you would have died instantly," Pein said. "Now, even you could not possibly know of pain greater than this."

Hidan was unresponsive. His wide, lavender eyes stared emptily into the rainy darkness. Blood started pouring from his eyes, only to be washed away by the cleansing rain. The priest used what little bit of strength left to grab his sacred medallion, soaking it in his blood-drenched hand. He made a plea to his god, shutting his eyes to think only of Jashin and his greatness, but the pain was far too great to focus. Pein's strange eyes were there, inside his head, invading every aspect of his being. An unseen force grabbed hold of Hidan's chakra coils, disrupting their flow, tearing them apart.

"You are unkillable, but this black blade can deliver a fate far worse than death. The pain you feel comes from the power of my own heart. A heart of blades."

Hidan winced as Pein slid the blade from Hidan's head, letting the rain wash away the blood before sheathing it back.

"I won't kill you. You're still valuable to the organization. I will even see to it that you will get a new improved weapon to replace the one that was destroyed."

After a careful examination, Kisame breathed a relieved sigh as he held his treasure. "The swords weren't damaged, but still, to block two Hidden Mist Swords is not normal. That's some seriously crazy power!"

"I'll tell you what we're going to do now," said Pein once order was restored. "Deidara, your effort is appreciated, but we don't need to kidnap the kitsune's friends. Rather, we're going to kill them. All of them. All his friends, everyone he knows, their family and their friends, anyone associated with this kitsune will die until no one is left. He will have nowhere to turn to. Then, it will be just him and us."

**To Be Continued…**

**I hope you all got good presents. Tails got a nice one! Peace and have a great New Year and I hope to see you all soon with more updates!**

**There's more fanart created by Lycropath for this story up which is always awesome to see. Please check it out!**


	18. Blood Knights

Hi.

Who here thought I was dead? Did anybody scream when they looked at their alerts today? And to think, I used to think my old updates were late. let's just hope my writing didn't get rusty at all. I'm really happy to be updating again and I hope this chapter was worth the huge wait. I made it with a lot of extra love.

**Winddragonpowers:** Sasuke Chao would go nuts if he saw Itachi. It would definitely attack if it saw an Itachi Chao. I'm not saying from where Hinata got Naruto DNA. You might be right about the Kyuubi maybe escaping. These are very dangerous chao

**Captain deoxys:** Pain will make good use of his Shinra Tensei powers. I'm sure if he had the chaos emerald, he could blow up the planet easily. I have this battle exploding around in my head. I f I can write it well, it will be the coolest, most epic battle that will ever be seen. Wish me luck!

**SirDeathShriek:** Was that note I left there still there? I will have to get rid of it. In any case, I'm not bending to any fangirls' wishes. I was just curious to see what people thought, and see if any good ideas would flow from that. I have a personal preference for NaruHina, so that naturally comes in anyway. This isn't really a romance fic, so all that stuff doesn't matter so much.

**Winnow:** Thanks sos much. I love Tobi and Deidara. The anime really did well with those two. I don't think Tails can save all his friends from Akatsuki. Somebody's most likely going to die.

**Mana the Cat Magician: **I don't even remember where an idea like that came from, but now I have the idea to make a chao out of almost everyone in the Naruto cast.

**Clever Phoenix: **I'm making the Akatsuki as evil as possible. Every scene seems to get funnier if Shadow is in it. I must be writing him wrong. Maybe I made him too much of a jerkass.

**Katanamaster4:** I agree. Tails and Cream make a very cute people. No promises on who's dying in this story, though. I don't even know yet. Anything could happen.

**Asher Tye:** Kakashi is an expert dog trainer and the first thing a well trained dog needs is a lot exercise. I'm sure the rules are similar for training foxes. Kakashi is having a lot of fun turning the little fuzzball into ninja fighting machine. It's tough on him, but Tails couldn't have asked for a better sensei. Chao are asexual beings, so I would guess that sexy no jutsu has no effect on them. A Naruto Chao who used that jutsu would transform into a chao sized human. Can the Kyuubi connect with Chao? Short answer: Yes. Anything with Naruto or Tails' DNA could manifest Kyuubi chakra. Long answer: Wait and see what happens as the story continues. The upcoming fight with Pain and Tails should really be something.

**Pikachu15evee: **Those would all be amazing to see. Maybe Tails can dress up as Elvis and Orochimaru can dress up as Michael Jackson and the two can have some showdown

**Iluvtails: **Hehehe, brave little Tailzie-kun is gonna kick some Akatsuki ass!

**Kitsune-Superfox:** Actually, I don't know if Tails can stop them from killing all his friends. Akatsuki is pretty strong, so it looks like somebody's gonna have to die, but Tails will know a lot of jutsu to help him. I haven't been on fanfiction in forever, so I'll try to get back to reading yuor fic soon. i hope it's going well.

**Lycropath:** I have an answer for how Tails can use Chidori without the Sharingan, but he'll find that out later. Now thanks to you pointing that out, Tails is gonna get screwed. As to how Hinata acquired Naruto's DNA, I'm not gonna say. I think it's funnier to leave it to the readers' imagination. This can be a very dirty fic. ^_^; I'm lovin' the fanart that you do. Keep it coming!

**Dragon Man 180: **Hinata Chao…I love it! There will definately be Hinata Chao coming up. Maybe Naruto Chao will gather himself a chao harem.

**Blue Mage Quartet:** It was fun to write Vanilla and Cream because they bring such a contrast of sanity to all the craziness going on around them. Naturally, one of the most evil bloodthirsty cosmic terrors of the universe would be a fan of their cookies. Yay for bunny bombs! I love having Sonic and Tails together, but I think Tails alone gives a lot of room for growth.

**Force 'Hog:** That ninety percent of Sonic fanfic writers will be delighted to know that their best writer fell into that trap, too. XD Just kidding. I'll fix it eventually. Thanks for pointing that out. I must be the only guy who didn't notice it.

**Morph: **Thanks! I'm glad you like the way things are developing.

**Insane Squirrel: **Yup, Rukia would be tossing those Chappy the Rabbit bombs like crazy. Bleach is one of those things I just have to reference. That's TailsXCream friendship over there. No romance yet.

**Psionicnemesis:** Thanks. Glad you liked that chapter. I don't think Akatsuki can dodge bullets. Deidara already got shot at one point. Nevertheless, I still think they can single handedly destroy GUN with all their abilities.

**ShiningShadow2900: **Thanks! Glad you liked the fight. Enjoy the next ones!

**Animequeen78: **Thanks! I really love writing the crazy Tobi scenes.

**A Sonic and Naruto Fan:** Thanks for the mega-detailed review! Always fun to get those. From all the games and shows and most other fics I've seen Shadow in, he seems pretty mean. Most of the time, I exaggerate this to make it funny. He does believe in saving the world and honoring Maria's memory, but good doesn't have to equal nice. He does help out his friends in this story after all. And he's training Hinata! As for pairings, I have no idea what they will be, so go ahead and request SonAmy if you like. I think I actually like SonAmy more, but I also like Sonic not being tied down. Chakra and Chaos energy are very similar and they interact all the time. There are all different types of chakra. Maybe chaos energy is a type of chakra. I think it's very close to Senjutsu, actually. Caliburn will make an appearance for sure. Sonic's element would most likely be fire and wind. Fire because water is his weakness and wind because…he's like the wind.

**Davidtheumbreon: **I'm going to update my fic on Friday, November 27, 2009. If you're reading this, and it's past that date, then I updated.

**Tucker from Blood Gulch:** Silver and Blaze will definitely be making an appearance soon. I'm not sure about the Babylon Rogues, though. It's possible. If you're still up for making that comic of this fic, I'd love to see it, by the way.

**TAILS LOVER!!!:** OKAY!

**Hello:** See above.

**UDATE:** Done and done

**Neji Hyuga720: **Tails is going. Oh, man is he going.

**oOo-Kaede Higuchi-oOo: **Why, yes he is. He might be more evil here than he is in the manga.

**Dev the Dog: **Wow! I'm honored to hear that. I'm really sorry this one was so long in coming. I feel bad about that. It really makes me happy giving you guys good stuff to read.

Thanks again, everyone! On with the story! Bring some snacks. It's a long one.

* * *

**Chapter XVIII: Blood Knights**

_A few months later…_

When Tails would come to see the big surprise Amy had prepared, she was sure that it would make him the happiest fox ever.

"There," Amy set her paintbrush down, still dripping with pink paint, and took a step back to admire her handiwork. "This new paintjob makes the Tornado look so much better. How could it be that he has a zillion different planes and not one of them is pink? I can't wait to show Tails. Now where is that fox boy hiding? Must be training somewhere. I hope he comes back home from that latest training session soon."

Amy knew that Tails had to be in the area somewhere. With the ancient forest of the mystic Ruins being so far from civilization, Tails had the place all to himself to practice his new techniques with Kakashi. A good thing, too. Most of the more recent jutsu that kit was learning were bigger, louder, flashier, and sure to attract unwanted attention. Never a good thing for ninjas.

"It sure is a nice day for flying, too. Not a cloud on the sky. I hope Tails take me," Amy's thoughts were stopped when a sudden flash of lightning erupted in the clear blue sky.

"Lightning? But it's a perfectly clear day out."

A two tailed orange ball came thundering down from the sky like a comet with a trail of lightning bolts. With all the power of a meteor strike, it crashed into a solid rocky hillside, reducing it to a cloud of dust and rubble. Amy let out a wild yelp as the entire Mystic Ruins region rumbled.

Hatake Kakashi stood just inches away from the blast radius to watch the two-tailed silhouette emerge from the dust cloud, electrical energy still running through his fur with a light crackle.

"Nicely done, Tails," said Kakashi. "You've progressed so well with your training. That's your most devastating attack in your arsenal. Perfect for a surprise assassination, but you have to be extremely careful when using it. Without the Sharingan, you'll be locked into tunnel vision and you'll be open to counterattacks. Do you understand?"

"AHCHOO!"

Tails' sneeze almost hit Kakashi all over his face. It was times like these he was glad to always have a mask on.

"That's a new answer," Kakashi muttered. "What's the matter? Not feeling well?"

Tails sniffled and rubbed his nose. "It's just a small cold. It'll pass."

"It did rain last night, didn't it?" Kakashi said, glancing up at the sky. "You were training out in the middle of those thunderstorms again, weren't you? Not the most common sense idea in the world to do."

"Hey, it was your idea!" Tails shot back.

Kakashi nodded. "That it was. And because of that, Vanilla Rabbit scolded me for being an irresponsible teacher. She can be quite scary when she's angry. I advise you don't let her see you like that."

Tails sneezed again. "That doesn't matter. I'm not gonna let a little cold get in the way of my training."

"Maybe not, but there's no need to strain yourself. You've come a long way in a very short time. You're more skilled than you think. Even the Raikage would be impressed with your Raiton powers. After you struggled with Chidori, look at how many techniques you picked up and mastered."

"Yeah. I especially love this new Lightsaber no Jutsu," Tails opened up his hand where he shaped his chakra into a sword shaped beam of crackling energy.

"Don't call it that. It's a your lightning chakra shaped into sword form."

"Yeah. I'll guess you're right. It's not a lightsaber at all. It doesn't make any of those lightsabery sounds," Tails swished around his newly created sword, practicing his kenjutsu while mimicking those distinct humming sounds. "_Pshhhh vmmmm vrummm wummm ksshkskhshshs!"_

Kakashi started to look very tired. "Just when I thought you couldn't possibly get any geekier…"

"I might try building a real lightsaber later," Tails interrupted, "then test them to see how the different blades compare. Of course, it'll be hard to do because depending on the power crystal source I use, I would have to adjust the diatium in the power cells, which would require a reconfiguration of the energy modulation circuits if I want to stabilize the gyroscopic effect when all that energy gets converted into an arc wave necessary for the plasma containment field."

"…You manage to outdo yourself every single time."

"Sorry," Tails said with a sheepish grin and dispelled the sword. "It's just that whenever I'm inventing new stuff, I get really into it. I can't help it sometimes."

"So I've noticed. You should be more careful about that," Kakashi said. "I've seen you've been working non-stop without eating or sleeping sometimes, almost to the point of burnout. Your training exercises burns away so much energy, you must be starving now."

"Yeah, I guess I am kinda hungry," Tails patted his belly. It was now he noticed that it was growling hungrily.

"Great. I've got just the thing for you," Kakashi said as he fished out a can from his pack and handed it to the kit. "You're gonna love this, Tails."

Tails inspected the can carefully. There was the Konoha leaf symbol on the front, but just below that was a picture of a dog. Tails' ears started twitching.

"Is this dog food?"

"Not just any dog food," Kakashi corrected him. "This one is made especially for ninja dogs. Guaranteed to keep your teeth sharp and your fur coat shiny. Pakkun loves this stuff. He says it's so delicious that…why are you looking at me like that?"

"I don't eat dog food!"

"You don't?" Kakashi asked in surprise. "And to think, I even made you this nice little doggie dish with your name on it and everything," he presented the fox a beautifully crafted orange bowl with the name "Tails" engraved on the side. An enormous sweat drop fell down Tails' face. Kakashi shook his head sadly.

"It just goes to show that I need to learn more about you Mobians," Kakashi said, taking out a small notepad and pen. "So tell me, what do you eat?"

"Chilidogs," Tails answered immediately.

"I see," Kakashi nodded and started to list things down. "What else?"

Tails started thinking over it carefully. It was the most important question Kakashi had ever asked him. The results might affect his training. "Umm, I started to really like ramen now."

"No surprise there. Naruto took you out for some, didn't he?" he wrote down ramen. "Go on."

"Mint candy is my favorite," Tails smacked his lips just thinking about it. "I love everything minty. And I like hot dogs…"

"That's covered by chilidogs."

"Oh, so write down chilidogs again. Then there's pizza, nachos, cheesy poofs, buffalo wings, chickens…" Tails went on as more junk food and fatty things made the list, "…and I've never had rabbit before, but something tells me it's good. Speaking of rabbits, Cream and Vanilla make the best pies in the world. And the best cookies. They're so gooey." Tails started to drool.

"That's very nice" Kakashi said, looking over the list. "Do you know what all these things have in common?"

Tails shook his head. "Nuh-uh."

"They're terrible for you!" he took his notebook and smacked Tails over the head with it. "Don't you eat any vegetables?"

"Yuch!" Tails stuck his tongue out and made a disgusted face, grossed out by the very word. "I hate the stuff. I never eat them. Sonic doesn't eat them. Kyuubi hates them. Nobody likes 'em."

"Nobody? I'm sure Knuckles has the discipline to eat his vegetables," Kakashi said. "He sounds like the kind of personality that doesn't enjoy tasty things."

"I have no idea what Knuckles eats. I think just bugs and rocks."

"Regardless of that, we're way behind in changing your eating habits. At this point, dog food is probably better for you than the junk you've been feeding yourself. From this point on, I'm putting you on a strict diet of fresh fruits and vegetables. I can tell that you're gonna hate me for this, so let me explain why."

Tails groaned. Kakashi was well into lecture mode already, and there was no stopping him now.

"This is important, Tails," Kakashi lectured. "This isn't just about getting the right nutrition. You must master the flow of yin and yang energy that runs through your body and this is heavily affected by what you eat. Chilidogs and ramen in particular have incredibly strong yang energy, which explains why Sonic grins like he's off his rocker and why Naruto is a hyperactive loudmouth. Mint on the other hand, is more yin based, so you're a bit more balanced. But none of that really matters because if you don't eat those vegetables, you're going to seriously drop dead."

"I don't think I'm supposed to be eating vegetables. I mean, take a look at these," Tails opened his mouth wide and revealed a pair of very sharp fangs.

"Hmm, those are some creepy looking fangs you got there. You're symbiotic relationship with Kyuubi is slowly evolving. You'll need more meat. A lot of meat," he emphasized. "You'll soon start to take more of his traits as time goes on. Just wait for the claws to come in."

"I just hope I don't change too much. I don't have time to make all these weird changes now. At least not when I'm so close to finishing my invention to replicate the Mangekyou Sharingan."

"Oh, really? You're almost finished with that?"

"I just need to test it now, but I'm positive it's gonna work," Tails said, happy now that they switched to his favorite subject. "The hardest part was getting Sasuke Chao to cooperate, but now all I need is the energy from the Master Emerald to get it running, so we need to fly to Angel Island. Amy volunteered to be a test subject. She's probably waiting for me right now."

Tails eagerly ran up the hill towards his workshop. With Amy's impatience, it was never good to keep her waiting too long.

"If this works, I can finally see Sonic again. I wonder what he'll think when he sees how much stronger I got. I hope he doesn't think I'm trying to show him up or anything."

"Every sensei takes great joy in seeing their pupils grow up to be stronger than they are," Kakashi said. "I'm sure Sonic is the same way. He'll be very happy to see you…just so long as you don't show up in that."

Kakashi pointed in the direction of his workshop where Amy was already waving to them, the Tornado right behind her.

Tails screeched to a halt and stared at his plane, his mouth dropped open.

"Hi, Tails," Amy called out. "I saw you training out there. You were really cool!"

"Amy, What did you do to my Tornado?"

"What does it look like, Captain Obvious? I painted it."

Tails had to shut his eyes in fear that the ultra bright pinkness might burn them out. "You sabotaged it! There's so much pink, I think my eyes are gonna bleed."

"That's a mean thing to say. All I did was give your grimy old plane a fresh coat of paint. You haven't painted it in forever. I was trying to be helpful."

"But it looks so uncool…" Tails drawled. "I can't go flying around in the Tornado like this. Everyone who sees it is gonna laugh at me. Even Itachi will laugh at me."

"I think it looks pretty in pink," Amy said as she dipped her brush into the paint can. "It's not like pink is that far off from red. You just need to get used to it. You know, introduce it into your daily life a little. Get in touch with your feminine side."

And with a mischievous evil smirk, she wiped her paintbrush right across Tails' face.

Tails glared furiously as his eyes went red. **"That's it, Tails. Just kill her and end this ignominy."**

"Listen, Amy" Tails growled. "In another realm, I am the deadliest of all the demon lords. You don't want to mess with me."

"That may be, but in this realm, you're just a big fluffball of fuzzy sweetness," Amy then took her brush and drew a big pink heart on Tail's chest.

Tails' tails thumped the ground furiously. Kakashi tried very hard to keep himself to his little orange book, but saw that things would get very dangerous if he didn't interfere.

"Amy, please don't make Tails mad," Kakashi said. "We don't to arouse the demon fox's chakra and destroy the world unnecessarily."

Amy stared in disbelief. "You could destroy the world every time you get mad? Wow, and people complain that I've got a temper."

"Just apologize to Tails, would you?" Kakashi asked in a pleading tone.

"Oh, all right. I'm sorry, Tails," Amy said as she gently wiped the paint off his face. "I didn't mean to upset you. I just got so excited when you told me that today would be the day. I guess I act a little crazy sometimes when I'm thinking about Sonic."

Tails took a deep breath and sighed. "It's all right, Amy. I know exactly how you feel. That's why I've been working every single night trying to put this machine together. It was the most difficult project I ever worked on, but I think I finally got it."

"That machine of yours is ready?"

"Yup," Tails nodded.

"So we can go now and see Sonic?"

Tails nodded again.

"Oh, Tails! I love you, my favorite adorable big brainy super smart amazing genius sweet hearted cute little two tailed ninja kitsune-chan!" Amy shouted out in one breath while her arms wrapped around him in a rib crushing squeeze that blew all the air out of his lungs.

"I knew you'd be happy," the fox managed to get out in a strained voice.

"When are we leaving?" Amy asked immediately.

"Right away. Let me just check the Tornado to make sure you didn't break anything. There's some new advanced weaponry in here that's pretty delicate." With a push of a button, a frigid beam of ice energy blasted from the front of the plane. It struck one the X-Tornadoes nearby, covering it in a thick layer of sparkling ice. At the slightest touch, the plane shattered into tiny ice shards.

"A freeze gun? When did you build that?"

"Haku helped me with that one."

"Who?"

"Haku is the ghost of a genius ice using ninja," Tails explained. "He shows up in my head sometimes and helps out a lot."

Amy shot him a sideways glance. "There's a demon fox and now a ice ninja spirit living in your head? Are there any other kinds of things that pop into your head that I should know about?"

"Just boobs mostly," Tails said with a shrug.

"_Tails!"_ Amy clasped her hands against her chest. Knowing Tails, he might have had x-ray devices on him.

"Relax. I didn't mean your boobs."

Amy shook her head. "Shame on you, Tails. You are such a weird little pervert, but because of the big favor you're doing me, I'll forget you said all that."

"Everything looks fine," Tails said, finishing his checkup . "I'm ready to fly if you are. Coming, Kakashi-sensei?"

"I won't be going with you. I want to do a little information gathering. I haven't heard much from the Akatsuki as of late. It's been getting a little too quiet. That's never a good sign."

"So if they made a move and started attacking, would that be a good sign?" Amy asked.

"That would also be bad."

Amy scratched her head. "Wait. I'm confused. I thought—"

"Forget about it, Amy," Tails shouted above the roaring engine. "We gotta go. Knuckles is already waiting for us."

* * *

Knuckles stalked the great halls of the Hidden Palace, pacing back and forth impatiently in the Master Emerald Shrine. "Where is he? He said he'd be here by now. I don't like to be kept waiting."

Since sunrise, Knuckles had been expecting Tails to arrive with his new invention. It was past noon when he first felt the presence of someone else on the island.

Someone was here, but it wasn't Tails. "Another enemy," the echidna growled under his breath. Someone whose chakra smelled vaguely familiar. These intruders always seemed to come at the worst time. And hiding behind the Master Emerald at that. Slowly, Knuckles stood up and cracked his knuckles extra loudly. "Come on out and show yourself, intruder. Don't make this any harder than it is already."

The intruder poked his head out from behind.

"Chao?"

Knuckles blinked. It was just a chao. One that looked a lot like Uchiha Sasuke.

"All right. Somebody's gonna have to explain this one to me. Tails, where are you?"

"Hey, Knux," Tails finally showed up with Amy. "I see you met Sasuke Chao. How'd you know it was me that brought him here?"

The echidna glowered at him, arms folded. "Only you would come up with some crack headed thing like this."

"That crack headed Sasuke Chao is the key to opening that portal for us."

"This chao?" Knuckles arched an eyebrow. "This better not be some gag."

"I'm dead serious, Knux. I've spent a long time training with Sasuke Chao to get him ready for this. Today, he's going to use his eyes to open that portal directly to Shinobi World. Wait till you see this, Knuckles. You won't believe what this chao can do."

"Try me. I'm pretty gullible."

"Yeah…I kinda knew that."

"The fact is I'm not in any position to disbelieve you," Knuckles said. "The Master Emerald already foretold that you would be the one to bridge both worlds. The Master Emerald would not have given me this mission if you couldn't find a way."

"The Master Emerald told you all that? What else did it say?" Tails asked with wide eyes.

"Through the Master Emerald, I was summoned by the Chaos Force for an important mission. Earlier, I received a prophecy that unless I go to that Shinobi World and bring back the chaos emeralds, our universes will be destroyed and plunged into chaos forever."

"This was Orochimaru's plan from the beginning," Knuckles continued. "All along, he wanted a separation between the Master Emerald and the Seven Servers. With the chaos emeralds on a different world, the M.E. can't keep their powers in balance. They'll be left in an uncontrolled state and in the hands of madmen like Orochimaru, there's no telling what can happen. That's when they spoke about you being the key."

"The Chaos Force said that? That makes me feel a lot better. I haven't gotten any prophecies in awhile."

"Most people don't get any," Knuckles said. "Although I didn't understand everything it said myself. It was all very cryptic. They never mentioned exactly how you can manipulate space time to do this."

"Let me explain," Tails said, grinning broadly. Amy sighed and sat down on the floor looking very bored as Tails launched into science mode.

"The key to opening the gates lies in the power of the Sharingan, that little eye spinny thing you see in Sasuke Chao's eyes Every member in the Uchiha clan can awaken the eye, but only a few have mastered it to the point where they can open a portal through space time. To do that, you need the Mangekyou Sharingan. It's a higher level dojoutsu that lets the user bend space-time to his will, among other things. Itachi has it. That's how he came here. Kakashi-sensei can do it, too, but it's a lot harder for him, and his eye is injured, so I had to look elsewhere to find a Sharingan. Sasuke Chao only has a very weak Sharingan, but I believe we can awaken the Sharingan's highest powers that are lying dormant by combining the power of the Master Emerald and the Kyuubi chakra, and briefly fusing it together with the Sharingan, it would exert the potential to open up a big swirly energy thingy that will lead to the other world. Now keep in mind, this is all theoretical and untested. Not to mention that the portal can only go one way, so—"

Knuckles raised a fist, motioning for Tails to stop. "Hold off your rambling a second."

"What's wrong?"

The echidna's violet eyes narrowed and scanned the area. "We're not alone. There's someone else here, and it's not another chao this time."

"Oh, that's just Shadow," explained Tails. "He got here before I did."

At first, Knuckles could only glimpse a pair of bright red eyes staring at him from the darkness, but soon the black and red hedgehog revealed himself from the shadows that were his namesakes.

"You're losing your touch, Guardian."

"What are you doing here, Shadow?" Knuckles demanded.

"Oh, you're palace has so many dark corners for me to brood in over my angst filled past, that I just couldn't resist." Shadow said deadpan.

"Don't get snarky with me," Knuckles growled, then turned to Tails. "How did you know he was here and I didn't?"

"I sensed his chakra signature. It was easy," Tails said simply.

"You're telling me that you can sense chakra now?"

"No, but sensing Shadow is easy. He has more energy pouring out of him than a radioactive cockroach."

"What did you call me?"

"Cockroaches are known to survive nuclear blasts," Tails explained. "They probably come out afterwards with crazy scary mutant powers and their always glowing with energy."

"And I remind you of this?" Shadow's burning red eyes flared dangerously.

"Sorta," Tails laughed nervously

"I didn't think you'd be coming here too, Shadow," said Knuckles sourly. He wasn't so much upset about Shadow's arrival than the fact that Tails managed to sense his presence way before he could.

"I heard you were going on a trip to Shinobi World. I thought I might come along."

"Hey, does that mean you're done training Hinata?" Tails asked.

Shadow nodded. "She has mastered everything I have to teach her. I have completed whipping her into the deadliest gunslinger fighter on Mobius."

"Cool. She'll be so excited when I tell her that this gate works. Naruto and everyone will be in for a big surprise when they see Hinata return."

Shadow Smirked. "Oh, they'll be in for a surprise all right."

"Great, more gun toting crazies," Knuckles muttered. "Just why are you so interested in this mission, Shadow?"

"The same reason as you, pretty much. Don't think I haven't become aware of your prophecy. It's my purpose to save the world and get back the chaos emeralds just as much as it is yours. Besides, you'll never be able to defeat Orochimaru on your own."

"He won't be alone. I'm coming too, Shadow," Amy piped in.

Shadow snorted. "You? You're actually thinking of going? What are you gonna do out there?"

"I have to go! Sonic needs me."

"Orochimaru's a dangerous enemy," Shadow warned. "You can't expect to do anything useful against his forces without a weapon, which l seem to remember destroying."

"I'll-I'll figure something out. Maybe I'll find a new Piko Piko Hammer."

"Don't worry, Amy. I have a hammer you could use," Tails suggested.

"Really? Tails! That's awesome! You rock! I hope it's as big and strong as my old one."

"Here ya go," Tails placed an ordinary everyday hammer in her hands. "I use it all the time. I think it's pretty strong if you apply enough force to it. Give it a try."

Amy's hopeful smile disappeared as she stared at the hammer in her hand for a minute, not saying a word. She gave it a try. She tried it out by forcefully applying it to Tails' skull.

"I don't think he'll be getting up for a while," Knuckles said.

Shadow stared down scornfully at the prone fox's body lying on the ground in front of him, "Amy, next time you bash the genius kid's brains in, could you wait until after he shows us how his invention works first?"

"Oh, yeah. I guess you're right."

* * *

_One hour later…_

"You were right, Tails. This hammer must be strong if it cracked your thick head that easily."

"Owwwww…That really hurt," Tails moaned as he pushed an ice pack against the huge throbbing bump on his head. "It was just a temporary solution until you find something else."

But it's still too small," Amy complained. "I want a big weapon. I wanna wield something huge."

"Enough!" Knuckles growled impatiently. "We can discuss the huge things you want to grab onto later. Are we ready to do this or not? Every second we waste here, Orochimaru is getting closer to the chaos emeralds."

"Okay," Tails jumped to his feet and tossed the ice pack aside. "I'll get everything set up. Knux, can you just hand me the positronic accelerators, the reverse flux polarity capacitor, that parapolic molecular generator, and a screwdriver?"

Knuckles glanced back at him with an annoyed look. "I have no idea what any of those things are."

"Never mind. Just toss me that whole toolkit. Everything's in there."

Within minutes, Tails screwed all the gadgets perfectly into place. "There we go. I just have to do the incantation and we're set. Sasuke Chao, get on the emerald."

Knuckles raised an eye ridge and fixed him a weirded out look. "An incantation?"

"Don't give me that weird look," Tails said. "It's not my thing either, but that's how demon magic works. I have to."

Tails motioned for Sasuke Chao to hop on top of the Master Emerald. Tails then sat down and closed his eyes in concentration, raised his hands and began to speak.

"On a mountain of skulls I sit atop a throne of blood. The nine lights that fill me with forbidden secrets. Foundation Stone of the world, shining among the stars, pour down your wisdom. Spinning scarlet churning with the blood of a thousand demons, raise your sword and reveal the hidden realm."

Dark blood red energy poured out of the Tails' body and swirled violently around the Master Emerald. Sasuke Chao's Sharingan mutated into a small circle with three curved blades spinning inside his bloodshot eyes.

"There! That's the Mangekyou Sharingan!" Tails yelled excitedly. "It's starting!" The gem started glowing brighter amidst the dark energies, bathing the palace in a colorful clashing pattern of eldritch power. Tails swiped the air as if he held an invisible sword in his hand and sliced the universe in two.

"All you have to do now is jump through. Within seconds, you guys will be on the other side," Tails explained.

"Wait…" Amy stared at him wide eyed. "Aren't you coming, Tails?"

Tails slowly shook his head. "I wanted too, but I can't go yet. I have to stay here and face the Akatsuki. They'll mow down this entire planet, killing everyone in their way just to get to me. When Sonic's not around, it's up to me to take his place as the Hero of Mobius. I'm making my stand and I'm not leaving until I finish this with Akatsuki."

"What about Sonic? You're not going to help us save Sonic? Aren't you worried about him?"

Tails laughed. "Worried? About Sonic? Sonic doesn't need my help. Heroes don't like to stay captured and wait for their friends to save them. Knowing him, he probably already escaped and whooped Orochimaru's butt," he said with a grin on his face so big that Amy couldn't help but smile.

"Tails…" Amy slid her arms around her shoulders and pulled him into a deep hug, resting her cheek lightly on his soft furry head.

"Tails, before we go, I just want to let you know that Sonic is so lucky to have you for a little brother. I know he'd be so proud of you." Tails felt something wet fall into his fur. He looked up and saw tears trickling down Amy's face.

"You okay, Amy?"

"Tails," her voice sounded so broken. "Promise me you won't let those Akatsuki guys capture you. I know I never show it, but you know how much I care about you, right? You've always been my special little guy. If I lost both you and Sonic, I don't know what I would do."

"I promise, Amy," Tails said while he wrapped his two tails around her, hugging her tightly. "I love you, too. I promise this will all be over soon and we'll be back together again."

"Thank you, Tails," Amy bent down and kissed him on the cheek. "You really know how to give me hope."

"_She really can be nice sometimes," _Tails thought. After letting go of Amy, he remembered that he had two other guys to say goodbye to. "Do I get a hug from you guys, too?"

If the permanent scowls plastered on their faces were any clue, he already knew the answer to that one.

"You get only one thing from me," Knuckles said gruffly. "My trust in you to guard the Master Emerald while I'm gone."

Tails lit up with surprise. "Wow! Really? Knux, that's such a big honor! That's so—"

"And don't screw it up!" Knuckles said, abruptly cutting off whatever Tails had to say.

"I mean it, Tails. This isn't one of your toys. This is the most valuable, the most powerful, the most sacred, the most dangerous, the most sought after green rock in history…" Knuckles went on listing more and more synonyms to describe how important the Master Emerald was and how it impacted the lives of everyone in the universe and their cat.

"Knuckles! I got it!" Tails shouted. "I promise I'll take good care of it."

"Sorry. I'm just a little nervous about this whole thing. It's making me edgy."

"You have my word that I'll do my best to be a great Guardian," Tails promised.

"Have you memorized all the Guardian's rules?"

"Guard the Emerald. Punch anyone who looks at it funny? Yeah, I got it.

"Remember, if I see even one tiny scratch on that Emerald…"

"I got an idea, Knux," Tails said, putting a reassuring arm on his shoulder. "I can make sure it stays safe if I seal the M.E. in its own dimensional pocket by manipulating quantum subatomic metaparticles using a localized amalgamation of asynchronous space by reversing the tachyon flow in an interphasing trans-isiomatic warp matrix."

Knuckles started to feel bleary eyed. "Uhh…yeah. I guess that would be…good."

Tails sighed with relief. _"That finally shut him up for awhile. _Seriously though, you're right that I might be new at guarding an emerald, but you know me and Sonic, we're guardians of freedom, and that's something a lot more precious than any emerald, no matter how powerful it is."

"May the Walkers guide you, Tails," Knuckles said in the calmest voice and bowed his head in honor.

Tails bowed back then finally turned to Shadow.

"What about you, Shadow? One last goodbye?"

"I don't like these goodbyes. I want to just leave already."

"Fair enough. Just don't forget to take your emo pills, okay?"

Shadow shuddered at the thought. Tails actually invented something to cure his angsty ways. He took the pills once. They worked. They worked so well he made everyone swear never to mention the incident again.

"I'll miss you guys," Tails wiped a small tear from his eyes as they started towards the gate. "I'll try to end this soon."

"Wait. So how are we supposed to get back again?" Knuckles asked just before stepping through.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Tails just shrugged. "I'll figure out somethin'. Don't worry about it. I hear Konoha is a very friendly place."

Shadow was the first to stick his hand into the shimmering portal. It didn't feel much different from chaos control, but something still wasn't right before going through. Looking back in Tails' direction, he fixed him the meanest death glare ever

Tails flattened his ears when he met Shadow's icy stare. "Shadow, if you sense something wrong, I'll try and fix it. You don't have to always give me that death glare."

"I'm not glaring at you. I'm glaring at _him_."

Tails whirled around to confront the figure standing behind him.

An Akatsuki member. Tails knew it before he even looked.

"Hello there," the dark cloaked ninja greeted with a hideous grin. "Sorry for not announcing myself in. I am a ninja, after all. We do tend to sneak around silently."

"I have a bad feeling about this," Tails murmured, feeling his stomach drop.

"Who is this?" Knuckles demanded. "Identify yourself, intruder."

"With pleasure," the ninja stepped closer. Amy shrunk back at the monster with blue skin and all the features of a shark, carrying two ridiculously gigantic swords on his back. "Hoshigal Kisame. You'll be sure to remember that name for the short remainder of your lives."

"He's usually seen with Itachi, but I don't see him anywhere," Tails added.

"Itachi was called away on another mission. I was sent to kill the Guardian of this island. I didn't even know you'd be here. Just be my lucky day. I see you've been pretty busy lately—" Kisame stopped and gawked at the strange creature standing on top the Emerald. "That little guy over there looks just like Itachi's little brother. Is that the Mangekyou Sharingan? You actually created the Mangekyou Sharingan? That's the most retardedly genius thing I've ever seen! Too bad Itachi isn't here to see this."

Knuckles stood protectively in front of the Master Emerald. "Take one more step and it's over, pal."

"Ease up, blockhead. First order of business, I have to immobilize the Kyuubi carrier," directing his full attention to Tails, Kisame unhooked one of the giant swords on his back. Tails recognized the razor sharp edge of the Kubikiri Houchi. He remembered how powerful that weapon could be in the right hands. He remembered the offer he made to Suigetsu to enhance the sword's powers.

Now it was in the hands of an enemy, the absurdly sharp blade pointed in his direction.

"That used to be Suigetsu's sword. How come you have it?" Tails asked.

"Old history, squirt. This sword has passed through many hands throughout it's days. The important thing is that it's mine now and you're about to experience just how well this one can slice. It looks like you'll need a new nickname after I cut off your tails. I can't allow any pesky flying, now can I?"

Letting out a mighty roar, Kisame charged at the kitsune, angling the giant blade to cut him down. Tails stood his ground, ready to throw every jutsu he knew at the charging monster. Kisame reared back his sword, but froze in mid-swing. Kisame looked just as astonished as Tails. Their battle abruptly ended with neither of them knowing why. Even with all his power, he couldn't get the sword to budge another inch.

"Strange. Very very strange," Kisame showed a wry smile. "That's the trouble with intelligent swords. They fight who they want. It seems that Zabuza's sword doesn't want to hurt you. I wonder why that could be. What is your relationship to this sword, kit?"

"Shadow! Get the kids out of here now!" Knuckles ordered.

"No way, Knuckles. I'm staying to help.

"You're their target," Knuckles yelled back. "The best thing for you is to stay as far away from the Akatsuki as possible."

"Kakashi-sensei trained me to fight them. I can help you."

Knuckles didn't argue back, but just motioned to Shadow who gave him a "whatever" shrug, then snapped his fingers. Before Tails could blink his eyes, a flash of yellow light whisked him away.

"Amy, too," Knuckles commanded.

"Oh no you don't. Shadow, don't you dare chaos control m—" A flash of light appeared and devoured Amy in mid-sentence.

Now no longer distracted, Knuckles flexed his muscles and focused on Hoshigaki Kisame, Killer of the Mist.

* * *

"OOF!" Tails fell from the sky and landed ungracefully landed face first into a mountain of hot sand. Spitting the sand out his mouth and pounding it out his ears, he looked around and found himself in the middle of a vast desert filled with ruined pyramids and whirlpools of shifting sand.

"Sandopolis Zone? What an annoying place to get chaos controlled to. I wonder where Amy was sent?"

"TAAAAIIIIIIIILSSSSS!!!!"

Tails' ears perked up at the cry of distress and looked over the dunes to see the pink hedgehog sinking in quicksand.

"That jerk chaos controlled me into a pit of quicksand! Amy screamed flailing her arms for dear life. "HELP! HELP!"

"Relax, Amy! Struggling will only make you sink faster," Tails called out.

"What am I supposed to do then?"

"The high volume fraction is such that you need to apply sufficient pressure to decrease the viscosity on the sand flocculation—"

"TAILS! Shut up and get me out of here!" Amy shouted and went thrashing around harder than ever.

"Coming, Amy…"

"Harder Tails! Harder!" the sand was moving its way up to her neck now. Tails gritted his teeth and with a hard yank, he flung Amy out of the pit and the two went flying into the nearby dunes.

"Are you okay, Amy?"

"That jerk Shadow chaos controlled me into quicksand on purpose. I have sand everywhere now," she grumbled as she brushed the sand out of her dress. She took off her boots to pour the sand out and noticed that Tails was covering his mouth

"What are you snickering at?" Amy snapped.

"You're right. Shadow totally did that to you on purpose. For a someone whose whole life is misery, he's a really funny guy."

"I don't think there's anything funny about being stuck in the desert. Tell your Mecha Kyuubi thing to come down here right now and get us out of here."

"Mecha Kyuubi isn't coming," Tail said. "He's not happy about the new paint job you gave him. He said you can find your own way out of here. He'll come pick me up, but it would be really mean to leave you here all by yourself, so we'll just have to stay together."

"So what do we do now?"

"What else? We're going back there. The Hidden Palace isn't too far off from these parts and I know the way."

The sun was high above them, beaming its vicious rays down. Amy trudged across the sand, falling far behind Tails. "I can barely move," she groaned. "Slow down, Tails."

"Try to go as fast as you can. We need to hurry before the giant sandworms come and try to eat us."

With a high pitched shriek that was murder on Tails' sensitive ears, Amy ran off kicking up a giant sandstorm in her wake. He had never seen Amy run that fast before. Not even when chasing Sonic.

Tails snickered again. _"Sandworms. Heh. There's no sandworms in this desert."_

* * *

Kisame smiled into the reflective surface of the Master Emerald, admiring the way his toothy grin sparkled in the gem's light.

"Still as handsome and dead sexy as ever," Kisame said with pride. "No sense killing anybody if you don't have a killer smile to match it, my mother always said."

"Step away from my Emerald," Knuckles said in a dry growl.

"This has got to be the biggest prize at the bottom of a Fruity Pebbles box I have ever seen," Kisame said, ignoring the echidna's glare. "I hope you don't mind if I take it. Aside from all the phenomenal cosmic powers and whatnot, it'll really brighten up the old Akatsuki lair. Doesn't that sound like a good idea?"

Knuckles' fists clenched tightly and his forehead started to bulge. "It sounds like your asking to lose your teeth."

"It's not really for me, by the way. It's for my Samehada," he nodded to the big bandaged sword on his shoulder. "She thinks this gem will taste delicious and she can't wait to sink her teeth into it."

Shadow snorted. "What a talker. He's getting in my nerves. I'll finish him for you."

"Oh no you won't," Knuckles pulled him back. "I'll take down this fish face myself. I don't need your help."

"What do you have against my helping you?" Shadow asked.

"I don't like people interfering in my fights," he said firmly. "Especially you. With you, I run the risk of your reckless chaos blasts demolishing this sacred shrine."

"Look, I can sense the chakra coming from this guy. He's very strong. You might want my help."

"No. It's my island! My Emerald! My problem!" And with that, Knuckles put his foot down.

"Have it your way. I'll just see myself out then," Shadow vanished from sight.

Knuckles strode confidently up towards the huge Mist swordsman. Kisame towered over the echidna as they stood facing each other. It was only now that Knuckles realized how much this shark monster dwarfed him in size, but that didn't matter. He knew that wasn't the only deciding factor in strength.

"Aren't you going to draw a weapon?" Kisame asked.

"All I have is my fists and that's all I need."

"Good old fisticuffs, eh? You're gonna wish you had something to stand in between you and Samehada."

"Are you just gonna stand around and talk about how great your stupid sword is, or are you actually going to use it?"

"Heh," Kisame grinned and raised his weapon up high. The bandages flew off, revealing the black scaled Samehada in all her flesh rending glory. The shark man's smile gleamed with pride as he held his precious blade on high. Most opponents tended to shrink away, eyes shaking with horror upon seeing the terrible form of the sword, but Knuckles didn't flinch. He stood his ground and tightened his fists with a powerful crack.

"Shall we?" Kisame asked politely.

Both fighters charged. Sword and fist met and Knuckles immediately punched into Samehada. Sparks flew out of the shaving blade as it grinded against the echidna's spiky knuckles. Now Knuckles realized just how strong the shark man really was. Kisame held his ground with only one hand on the sword. Kisame launched several aggressive swings. Knuckles met each one with a punch, barely moving his legs at all. That the echidna opponent was strong in defense was clear, but Kisame had to wonder what would happen if he actually landed a punch with those fists.

"You're built from some pretty tough stuff," said Kisame," but are you sure you got the strength to take this all the way?"

"I am the Guardian of this island!" Knuckles shouted with pride. "Only the strongest fighters in the world can be chosen to guard the Master Emerald!"

"Well laddy feakin' da, Mr. Guardian," Kisame laughed. "Let me show you just what I think of your precious rock collection," while holding back the echidna with the Samehada, Kisame lifted Kubikiri Houchi up high and launched it straight for the Master Emerald. Knuckles' eyes were filled wide with horror as he watched the giant cleaver sword sink deep into the heart of the gem. Spider veins climbed all over the surface until it looked like it was ready to shatter into a million pieces.

"You…you…" Knuckles could barely get the words out until he exploded in a fit of rage. "Never before has anyone treated this sacred ground with such blasphemy! I swear by the sacred oath of the Guardians, Kisame, you will never leave this palace alive!" Knuckles screamed and his entire body shined with a fierce purple aura. Kisame staggered as the ground rumbled under his feet. The taste of the Guardian's killing intent thickened the air. Samehada hummed in anticipation while its wielder grinned hungrily and licked his tongue between his teeth.

"So," the Mist swordsman spoke as he savored the rush of chakra blasting through the air, "are you ready to take things seriously now?"

Knuckles didn't answer. He attacked with much more grace and speed than Kisame ever imagined the blockhead could muster. Knuckles' spiked fist flew past the sword with an uppercut that pounded into Kisame's gills. The sharkman roared as he was sent crashing into the palace wall. He sprang back to his feet instantly and wiped away the blood from his gills before brandishing his sword again.

"Tch, didn't think that would set you off so much," Kisame said with a bloody grin, "but now at least I can honestly say that I'm really glad the Leader asked me to kill you."

Knuckles said nothing, but growled back as he leapt high into the air, with his fists glowing with power, coming down on Kisame in a flurry of punches.

"You're a good fighter," Kisame admitted. "But it doesn't help to be ticked off all the time. Don't you ever take the time to enjoy your battles?"

"Enjoy this!" Knuckles sprang forward with a flying kick.

Knuckles' foot was like a brick hurled into Kisame's face. His nose crumpled inwards as blood splattered over Knuckles' green blocky shoes. Kisame staggered back and snapped his shattered nose back into place.

Kisame stood still for a moment, letting the blood flow down his nose. All his battle rage gone from his face, he looked at his sword with a troubled face.

"You think I've been going too easy on him? Yeah, you're probably right. I should've at least seen that last kick coming," he said with an embarrassed laugh. "So do you want to settle things fast or slow?"

"You're talking to your sword now?"

"And why not? It has more interesting things to say than you do. You've got a real one track mind with everything revolving around that one rock. Granted, I know dimwits are attracted to very shiny objects, but still, you need to broaden your outlook on life. I think it's time you saw things from Samehada's perspective. It's a real pleasure to get to know her. Most people seem to end up leaving a little piece of themselves behind, hehehehe."

Kisame gripped the skull adorned hilt with both hands, and shifted his body into a kendo stance. Closing his eyes in concentration, he whispered the words of his jutsu.

"**Suiton: Bakushui Shouha!" (Explosive Water Wave)**

Kisame's chest expanded like a balloon and his lungs filled with suiton chakra. He expelled a violent blast of water from his mouth that flooded the chamber. The rush pushed Knuckles far below the surface where the Master Emerald lit up the waters with a glowing green luminescence. The dimensional vortex created a cyclone that started sucking the water into the gate. Knuckles pushed with all his strength against the vortex's fierce pull. Knuckles wondered what would happen of he just let the gate suck him in, but now was not the time to think about it. Kisame was hiding in the deep somewhere. Now in his element, the shark man was more dangerous than ever.

Kisame never looked more terrifying than he did than in the water. His movements were ten times faster, striding through the water with the streamlined grace and power of a great white. Kisame came up from below the echidna and hurtled past him. His cruel sword raked across Knuckles' body, scales shredded apart his skin like a grater on a block of cheese.

All of the Guardian's amazing strength drained out of his open wounds. The waters blackened and ran red with clouds of blood. Chunks of ragged flesh hung from Samehada's razor sharp scales. Knuckles looked as good dead the way his limp body slowly sank to the bottom. Strands of blood and shreds of flesh floated lazily around him.

"That was just a playful bite. Now, we feast," Kisame cackled. With a wave of his hand, the waters dispersed and the cavern was dry once again. Kisame stepped up to the motionless echidna, his bloody sword poised to strike a killing blow.

With his back to the Emerald, Kisame never noticed the abandoned Guillotine Sword embedded inside, and the gloved hand with golden bracelets that slid the blade from the cracks.

Knuckles eyes were closed, but he could still feel the weight of the great sword coming down to crush him. Blood gurgling in his mouth, he couldn't even make a sound. Not that he would've, anyway. If Knuckles had to die here, he was going out in the dignified way of the silent warrior. He showed no pain, no fear as the great sword came crashing down.

Kisame looked up and blinked. Standing in between Kisame's echidna prey and the shark sword was Zabuza's cleaver with a new wielder. When he saw the mighty head chopper sword in the hands of that little pink hedgehog in the red dress, he immediately forgot about Knuckles, now intrigued by this new warrior.

"Well, look at what we have here," Kisame flashed the girl a gentleman's smile. "From the data we gathered, you're supposed to be pretty powerful with a hammer. Looks like you upgraded your weaponry a bit. Allow me to welcome you to the BFS (Big Fuckin' Sword) Club."

"Get away from Knuckles and take your ugly sword with you, or else!"

"Or else what?" Kisame dared.

"Or else…I'm gonna get really really really really mad!"

"Go on then, little girl," Kisame said. "Let's see if you really know how to swing that thing around."

Suddenly, the chakra levels around them skyrocketed. Amy twirled the massive sword, producing a roiling vortex of glowing chaos energy that engulfed her entire body and the blade in pink fire. Kisame took a cautious step back, unsure of what kind of destructive force he had allowed to be unleashed into the world. Amy came leaping at the Mist killer, bringing her sword on top of him. Kisame threw his own sword up. The two exploded on contact with all the force of a nuclear blast, shaking the entire chamber and blasting them both backwards. A chaotic surge of hot pink energy and a flurry of pink hearts sprayed in all directions from her zanbato.

"_A sword that shoots pink hearts. This is going to be tougher than I thought."_

"That's some unreal power you got there," Kisame started to say. Maybe talking would get here to slow down a bit. "I can't say I approve of the pink hearts, but who am I to argue with what works. I might actually be scared if it weren't for the fact that your chakra aura tastes like bubble gum and cotton candy," he said as he licked the corner of his mouth. "I don't know if I should be more worried about getting decapitated or cavities. (Keep in mind that if I do find any cavities, I am just going to snap.)"

Amy dug her boots into the earth, still trying to get a feel for the huge zanbato in her hands. She never imagined that she could fight on even ground with a vicious sword master like Kisame, let alone lift the damn thing, but the longer she grasped the sword, the lighter it felt, the more she felt like it was a part of her own body.

"_The time is now. Be strong and strike. Hold nothing back,"_ a voice growled in Amy's head. She never heard that voice before, but whoever it was, it granted her more power than she ever felt before in her entire life.

"_This must be what Sonic feels like all the time. I wish Sonic could see me now. How romantic it would be if the two of us could stand back to back with our swords, fighting back all the evil in the world. Sonic, wherever you are across this universe, I hope you can hear me. I want you to know how much I'm fighting for you. I'm fighting for your love Sonic."_

Amy charged in for a second strike. The sharp ring of heavy steel resounded with every blow as Amy and Kisame continued the deadly dance, their swords flashing in front of the swirling portal. Amidst the pink whirlwind of swordplay, Kisame caught a glimpse of the ghostly image of Zabuza guiding her every strike.

"_So that explains what's going on. Zabuza has found a worthy successor, has he?"_

Again and again, Amy thrust forward, increasing in strength every time. The shark man retreated before the slashing of the great sword. He glided out of the way of her furious lunge a hairbreadth before would have bisected him in two. He parried against Kubikiri Houchi, hammering it with enough force to send the sword and wielder screaming upwards.

As the room spun around her, Amy tried to think of what her hero would do to finish this fight. She came up with one answer. Grabbing the giant blade with all her might, Amy curled up into a spin dash in midair. In a burst of energy, Amy transformed herself into spinning pink comet and collided into Kisame. An explosion sent shockwaves that shook the very island to its core. Kisame was gone. Amy stood alone in the smoldering crater, breathing heavily and the edges of her skirt tattered and scorched. A few stray hearts fluttered away amidst the pillar of smoke.

* * *

Knuckles moaned and slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was Shadow's gloomy scowl The black hedgehog knelt beside him, applying a steady stream of healing energy into the echidna's wounds. The soft glowing light was warm where the open gashes and spilled blood were cold, but the energy worked its magic, slowly stitching up his shredded flesh

"Nice to see you've been handling things well by yourself," the black hedgehog muttered.

"Shadow, don't even think about saying I told you so."

"Why bother? Thanks to idiots like you and the faker, I've said it so many times that the very concept has lost its meaning. My being right is simply a fact of existence."

"Yeah? If you're so awesome, why don't you try to stop Kisame?"

"Because I am now generously channeling my awesome chaos powers to heal your sorry ass. You're lucky you echidnas have such thick skin. You don't want to think about what that sword did to you."

Knuckles did think about it, causing a lance of fiery pain to surge through his body. "Damn, that monster was tough. Where is he? He must be stopped."

"Amy is fighting him," Shadow said, probing his wounds, reaching in with a more intense light to redirect the blood flow in his ripped arteries.

"Is she insane? Does she really think she can beat him?"

"If you could see her, you'll find that the answer to both those questions is "Yes." She is quite insane, and she is now the owner of an even more insane weapon."

* * *

The battle over, Amy relaxed the hold on her sword and breathed a heavy sigh of relief as she surveyed the giant crater she created. She gave everything she had to take down that shark monster.

"Sonic, I did it." If ever there was a time to do her victory pose, this was it.

But before Amy could so much as blow a kiss, the earth split itself open under her feet and a big meaty hand shot up and snagged Amy by the throat. A maniacal laugh came from below as the rest of Kisame's body rose from the rubble. Kubikiri Houchi fell from her hands and clattered to the ground. Kisame stomped his foot onto the blade to make sure it stayed there.

"Samehada can swim through the earth as easily as she swims through the sea," Kisame said. "Good thing, too. If I stuck around for that last hit, I might've actually died. Too bad for you, you dropped your guard down. And now it looks like you're all out of juice, too," Kisame threw the little hedgehog girl to the ground with shattering force. Several of her belongings fell from her person and skidded across the floor, landing at Kisame's feet.

Out of curiosity, Kisame picked up what looked like a deck of cards. His face lit up at what he saw. "Hey, are these tarot cards? That sounds like fun. Let's take a break and draw a few," he flipped out a card at random. He laughed out loud when he saw the result. "Ooh! The Devil. This must be my lucky day."

"The Devil is a bad card, fish brains!" Amy exclaimed.

"Not to me it isn't," the shark man chuckled. "I like it. I think I'll hang on to this one. Besides, I think it's your own luck you should be worrying about. Looks like you're never gonna get to go through that gate and rescue your boyfriend. Under other circumstances, I might have let you go, but when you live by the sword, you die by the sword. Those are the rules."

Trapped with nowhere to move and no sword to fight with, the moment of death was now at hand. With the shadow of the wicked sword now looming above her, Amy gave in and lowered her head in despair.

_"I'm sorry, Sonic. I don't know what I was thinking. I just wish that I could have seen you one last time."_

Kisame cackled with glee as he lifted the sword above his head and swung down in a single, sure stroke.

Amy's world exploded into white fire.

"Huh?" Kisame stopped laughing.

Amy didn't know why she was still breathing. All she could see around her was a scintillating sphere of lightning burning bright as the sun in the darkness of the cave, pushing back at Kisame's sword. Someone's outstretched hand was controlling the lightning, pouring more power out to keep the shark monster at bay. His bushy tails fluttered furiously behind him.

"How dare you interfere with my kill!" the shark man roared. His beady eyes were forced to shut themselves away from the blinding lights.

"Leave her alone, Kisame! I'm the one you want!"

"TAILS?" Amy shrieked. "Where have you been?"

Tails smiled back at her innocently. "You were doing so well, I didn't want to get in the way," he said. "But I think it's my turn now to stop this guy."

"You must have a death wish," Kisame said. "Even the stronger jinchuuriki that I captured knew to run away from me. Not that it did them any good in the end…"

"Run somewhere safe, Amy. This won't be pretty," With a quick nod, Amy ran away back to Shadow and Knuckles. "This is between you and me. I won't let you Akatsuki hurt my friends anymore."

"Fair enough. It's only right that I give you my undivided attention," Kisame's hands came together and formed the seal of a new jutsu.

"**Mizu no Kabe," (Wall of Water)** A wave of water shot up to the ceiling, separating the Akatsuki hunter and his prey from the others. Amy slashed with her zanbato against the wall, to no avail.

"Samehada feasted on a lot of great energy today. That water wall is reinforced with chakra and chaos energy," said Kisame. "Ain't no one coming to save you this time."

"I'm not afraid of you, Kisame."

Kisame just smiled. A low chuckle started to make its way up his throat and soon exploded in a burst of laughter. "I get a kick every time I hear that. You're not fooling anyone, squirt. I can smell the fear in your blood. You know very well what Samehada can do to you. You know that all the genius and all the techno babble in the world won't help against me."

"Maybe you're right. Maybe I am afraid. But you know what?" Tails' hand crackled with lightning again. "See this? This used to be the thing I was afraid of most in the world. Now I'm its master. The same thing's gonna happen to you. You won't be able to touch me with your sword. Not after I swipe that sword right out of your fingers."

"Ha! Big words, you cheeky brat. If you manage to take Samehada from me, I'll eat my hitai-ite!"

Tails tightened the Konoha headband on his brow, now ready to duel. A dozen Tails clones poofed onto the scene. Armed with kunai in their hands, they rolled into spin dashes and charged at the shark man. Kisame and Samehada spun together, he struck them all down in one fluid motion.

"**Raiton Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" (Lightning Shadow Clone)** yelled Tails' voice.

With a crash of thunder, the Tails clones exploded. A lightning bolt struck Kisame at point blank, the impact of the blast hurled the huge shark man backwards, but his zanbato still devoured the lightning chakra, negating the attack. Samehada sizzled with a deep electrical charge running along its scales.

Heh. Amateur…" Kisame muttered.

Kisame sensed a rise in chakra coming from his blind spot. From the corner of his eye, he saw another Tails swooping down from the shadows, a Chidori blazing on his arm. With a flick of the wrist, Kisame twirled the sword to his back just in time to catch and absorb the lethal strike of Tails' full powered Chidori. One again, Kisame blocked Tails' lightning attacks and the young Raiton user fell back reeling with pain his glove shredded and slick with blood. He tried to retreat, but Kisame's hand shot out and snatched the fox by his injured arm. Pulling him close, his gave a sharp twist followed by a loud cracking sound.

A harsh cry of pain echoed throughout the chamber followed by the shark man's grisly laughter.

"Have we learned our lesson about being overconfident in battle and underestimating our enemies now?" Kisame asked playfully and pinched Tails' cheeks. "No? Well, fear not! Kisame-sensei has much more to teach you."

Kisame raised an enormous fist and punched Tails so hard he sent the kit flying across the room until he slammed into a solid stone wall that collapsed on impact, burying the little fox in a heap of rocks. Tails managed to kick away the rubble, giving his chest the chance to breathe, but his legs would not allow him to stand. As the hulking shark came closer, Tails couldn't summon any more lightning other than a few fleeting sparks. There was only one place he could now turn.

"I've lost. I couldn't even land a single hit against him. Help me…Kyuubi."

Tails waited for it to happen. That moment when the darkest part of his mind opened up and the Kyuubi sent forth his nightmarish chakra that crumbled mountains and raised tsunamis, but this time nothing happened. The dark prison realm was silent and empty.

"Kyuubi, where are you?" Tails cried for help.

"**No,"** was his icy cold reply. **"I will not give one drop of my chakra to a weakling like you. Get up and finish him yourself."**

"Please, Kyuubi. I need your help."

"**Aren't you tired of always having someone coming to save you? It sickens me. Sometimes, you just make me wish I could eat you myself. It would save us all a lot more aggravation. Now get up."**

Tails grunted, trying to push himself up only to fail and fall hard on the floor. "I can't. I think my spine is broken."

"**Good. You'll feel less pain. You'll be more flexible now."**

Tails heard Kisame coming closer with every step he took "There's no time to argue. If you don't do something, he's gonna kill us. Do you want to die?"

"**I'm not going to die because I trust that you have enough of your own strength to win this. You don't need me to interfere."**

Tails' breathing was rapid and heavy. The little fox's ribs howled in agony with every breath he took. "What am I supposed to do? I can't think of a plan."

"**That's your problem, kit. You think too much. You're too serious. You can't mold any chakra right now because the stress has made your chakra coils too tense. You're too serious. This is supposed to be fun."**

"This isn't as mush fun as I thought it would be."

"**That's because you're not playign the game right! That the secret. Kisame has ascended through the shinobi world through sheer awesomeness. You must counter that if you wish to destroy him. Enjoy the fight. Give yourself to the thrill of battle. The rush of killing. Kisame's secret is that he's having a good time here. He's not planning. He's not thinking. His goal isn't even to win. He just wants to splatter the world with enough blood to satisfy his thirst."**

"I don't have any blood thirst."

"**No? I would not have chosen you if you did not. Try and see what you're really capable of doing. Don't worry about what happens if that sword strikes you. Let go of your fear of death and let your instincts take over. If he breaks your bones, you smile. If he slices off your tails, you laugh. If he kills you, you look him straight in the eye with a gaze that will haunt him forever. When we see just how strong you are with your own powers, only then will I call you my master."**

Kisame now stood right in front of Tails with that sadistic grin baring down on him. Kyuubi and all his chakra faded away into the mists of Tails' mindscape.

"_All right, Kyuubi. If you really think I can do it…"_

Kisame ferociously seized Tails by the throat and lifted the little fox up to his face, ever closer to his bloodstained teeth. Kisame's hot breath stank of blood.

"So, still not afraid of me?"

His answer? Tails suddenly threw his head forward and sank his teeth into Kisame's thick, bulging neck. He was sure his fangs struck an artery because in the next second, a jet of hot blood gushed into his face. Kisame unleashed a ferocious a roar as he dropped Tails to the ground. Tails could only remember one place where he ever heard a sound as monstrous as that. It sounded frighteningly like the Kyuubi.

Eyes filled with vengeance, Kisame raised his sword for one deadly stroke. A sword of lightning sprang to life in Tails' hands. Tails thrust his blade deep into Kisame's chest, slicing a clean cut that passed through his backside. The small neat hole in his chest leaked smoke. Inhaling the smell of his own charred flesh, Kisame suddenly felt very woozy.

"Guh! Running through me like a pig on a spit. Who the hell do you think you are?" he grumbled as he staggered, leveling his sword to steady his footing.

Tails slid the sword out of his chest. He assumed a dramatic stance and twirled the shining blade in flashy display. The sword glowed blue as the sky on its brightest day. Ice blue eyes flickered with lightning. "My friends call me Tails, but you can call me… Miles Prower…Electro Fox."

"Hahahah!" Blood splurted out of the shark man's mouth as he laughed. "It's hard to kill a guy with the chakra level of a full fledged bijuu. This is great! Now we can quit playing and starting fighting seriously."

"Thanks, Kisame," Tails smiled at him. His fangs too crackled with lightning. "I think that punch of yours really knocked my brain into place. I feel better than ever. You're right. I really oughta cut the techno babble. I've been thinking too much, been under way too much stress inventing things, drawing up too many blueprints. I really need to cut back, let go, and show you the real power of a kitsune."

"Bah! Fox demons are nothing to get carried away about," Kisame snarled. "You know nothing of sharks."

Tails lashed out in a flashing arc of light, leaping over a deadly sword swing. His foot landed smack on Kisame's face then bounced off and flew away, disappearing into the darkness.

"Running away and hiding?" Kisame carefully maneuvered through the darker shadowy corners of the cave, sniffing for the kit's blood. Hunting in these parts wasn't much different than in the depths of the ocean. It was quiet away from the distracting glowing and swirling that the Master Emerald and the gate were making. He kept Samehada on guard, ready for any surprise ninja attack.

From the corner of his eye, Kisame caught the flash of a shuriken whizzing from above. Evading it was easy, but too late did he notice the near invisible metal wire trailing behind it. Before Kisame could react, the thin wire coiled tightly around his wrists. Tracing the wire's trail, he looked up and saw Tails hanging upside down from the stalactites, holding onto the end. With a sharp pull, Tails yanked Samehada from Kisame's grip. Now with that pesky chakra eating sword out of the way, Tails released a current of electricity that raced down the wire until it shredded through Kisame's body, frying his insides to a crisp.

"I actually know a lot about sharks," Tails said. "I know all about the order of selachimorpha. I know how you guys hunt your prey by detecting the electromagnetic fields produced by all living things using your Ampullae of Lorenzini electro receptors. That electromagnetic current just fried your brain and overwhelmed those receptors."

"Spare me the techno babble," a now smoking hot Kisame grumbled. "Just for calling me a selachimorpha, I'm gonna skin you alive and make myself a new pair of fox slippers."

"How are you gonna do that when you don't know where I am? What's a big lug like you gonna do?" Tails taunted.

Kisame's teeth grinded at the sound of the kitsune's voice echoing through the darkness. But the damn fox was right. He had no idea where he was. Kisame staggered back as a wave of cloudiness and dizziness swept over him. He put his back to the wall, trying to feel around the place. He passed his own hand in front of his face and even that looked like a blurry blue blob. His hearing was scrambled, too. Even his almighty sense of smell couldn't detect the blood of his prey and his movements were downright sluggish. He was really groping in the dark. Kisame lumbered through the shrine, skimming the floor and hoping Samehada would find him.

"Come to me, Samehada. Help me kill this kitsune," Kisame called to his sword in his mind. Focusing past the thunderstorm pounding in his head, he reached out to the shark spirit that dwelled inside his sword.

From that hidden place, a voice called back to him. A strange, hideous demonic gurgling sound.

"_GIGIGIGI.."_

"I'm coming!" Kisame darted towards his sword and all but threw himself on the ground to snatch hit back. Tails flew down from above, blazing sword of lightning swinging down. Kisame rolled out of the way just in time. Tails' sword struck the ground. The rocky earth turned to molten slag.

"Too late, squirt. I got my sword back and we're both pissed. Now you're in for a world of hurt."

"Doesn't matter," Tails said. "I've weakened you enough that this might just be a fair fight for me."

Kisame sneered. "One things for sure. There's no way you'll make Samehada leave my hands again."

They stood there facing each other, gauging each other's swordsman spirits. Both their faces were soaked in blood. Both were grinning like demons.

Slowly, Tails' tails started to spin, lifting him off the ground and up to Kisame's height. With lightning speed to match his lightning sword, Tails attacked, becoming a whirlwind of dozens of swords flashing from every direction at once. Kisame caught each of the kitsune's graceful slashes with his sword. The metal sizzled and a fountain of sparks rushed out as the blue blade of pure energy bit into the heart of Samehada. Their blades locked, Tails' eyes glowed a deep sapphire. His entire body fully immersed in an aura of blue lightning. But the most unnerving part was that smile, baring a pair of vicious fangs.

Kisame never felt so overwhelmed in a sword fight before. Fighting the most lightweight opponent wielding a weightless sword proved to be especially tricky for the mist killer who focused on pure power and wide strokes. Fighting Tails might as well have been like fighting a ghost. Kisame and Samehada poured in all their concentration just to follow the kit's swordplay.

The very worst part of it all, Tails was the only one smiling now. The little demon fox came at him with more ferocity than any bijuu he ever faced. For the moment, all he could do now was parry.

The crashing and buzzing of bladed echoed throughout the empty cavern, their collisions so intense that a storm of white hot sparks rained down on the fighters. The super electrically charged air filled the cavern with the smell of ozone.

Amy looked on, jade eyes filled with terror. The little fox she was hugging before was Tails. But that was a completely different fox. The demon she watched had to be somebody else. She rooted for Tails. She wanted him to win against the Akatsuki. But not like this. There was no recognizing Tails beneath that coat of blood. Now a blue and orange blur of speed, his battle cry was like a thunderstrike. His every move spelled instant death.

Clutching her head between her hands, Amy shook her head and shut her eyes, trying to disbelieve everything she saw. "That's not Tails. He never looked like that before. It's the Kyuubi trying to take him over, right?"

"There's no Kyuubi there," Shadow said. "There's not a trace of the demon red chakra leaking out. That's all Tails' chakra. He's doing everything on his own."

"But that feeling I'm getting. It's so sinister."

"Kyuubi doesn't want Tails to be a mere slave. He's looking for a kindred spirit."

Tails broke from the fight to look through the wall of water to see his comrades still there on the other side. "What are you standing around for? Just go! Get out of here!"

"I don't wana leave you like this, Tails," Amy shouted. "What's gonna happen to you?"

"GO! You'll die if you stay here!"

"You heard him. We're leaving," said Shadow, slinging Knuckles' arm around his shoulders, he led him towards the light. Taking one last look at Tails, Amy held onto her zanbato tightly, not knowing what awaited beyond the gate. The three leapt through, Sasuke Chao with them. The swirling gate imploded in on itself.

"You made me lose my kills," Kisame snarled in between swings. "You'll suffer dearly for that. Come, Samehada. You've fed enough."

"_GIGIGIGIGI," _the sword replied.

Kisame thrust forward past Tails' defense. The tip of his sword slashed across the side of his face. Tails backrolled away from the second swipe that would have taken his whole face off. Tails' right eye was blinded by blood. Kisame laughed while Tails flew out of the slashing monster sword's reach. The wound on his face was small, but it showed him that he failed to calculate that giant sword's reach. Another mistake like that and it would be the end of him.

Worse still, the sword was changing, growing larger. Samehada's scales grew sharper, fiercer. It twitched and started moving of its own accord.

"_That sword is alive! I'm feeding it too much chakra. If I don't end this soon, he's going to awaken its power and unleash something terrible. I gotta end this in the next move."_

Tails wiped the blood from his eye. Placing his broken bloody hand against his chest, he recovered his fighting stance and angled his sword forward. Spinning his tails into action, he lunged for Kisame, pouring every last ounce of chakra he had into his blade. Kisame sensed that the kit was rushing in for a final attack. With Samehada in hand, he did the same.

The faster Tails ran, the brighter his sword burned until it burst into an intense flare that engulfed the shrine in a hot blinding light. Kisame roared as he charged head on into the light even as his blood sizzled off his flesh and the back of his eyeballs boiled. Tails swung the sword. A deafening thunderbolt crashed. Lightning blasted through the ceiling and shot up into the heavens. When the blinding flash died away and the cave returned to darkness, Tails was still standing behind Kisame with his lightning sword lowered. With that feral grin, Tails gave him knowing nod.

Kisame looked and saw that his right arm was gone.

"My arm…this kid…" The stump on his shoulder sizzled with smoke from a cauterized wound. Kisame found his severed arm several meters away, still gripping the hilt of Samehada.

"Technically, I didn't knock the sword out of your hand," said Tails, Kisame's hand was still tightly grasping the hilt of Samehada. He wanted nothing more at the moment than to reach down and pry his precious sword from his own dead fingers, but Tails held him at bay with the tip of his sword raised to Kisame's jugular.

"So what happens now, demon boy?" Kisame still found the horrible scene amusing. "Are you going to kill me?"

"Not in cold blood," Tails replied. "If you force me to go Kyuubi, then I'll think about killing you," the kitsune's blue blade suddenly burst with the red bloodshine of Kyuubi's chakra. However hot the blue lightning was, the red lightning was nine times hotter.

"Is that so?" Kisame's big grin was all the more terrifying under the hellish red glow. "In that case, let's just see what happens when I take all the energy from the Master Emerald, then we can both go super nova. That should draw out some interesting powers, eh?"

"Don't touch it!" Tails snarled.

"I'll touch whatever I want, squirt. Nothing you can say will change my mind."

"Trust me. You don't wanna move the Master Emerald from its shrine," Tails warned, his eyes deadly serious.

"Yeah? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't."

"Because if you do, then this happens," Tails pointed a finger up where the cavern ceiling caved in as Mecha Kyuubi burst through and grabbed the Emerald in its pink metallic claws.

Suddenly, falling rocks and crystals rained down as the entire island shook. With the shrine's pedestal empty, gravity returned to take hold of the island.

Angel Island began its long plummet through the skies towards the ocean depths.

"The Master Emerald is the power source that keeps the island floating. When you take it away, the whole place drops."

With the whole palace turned upside down and crumbling to pieces, Tails flew into the safety of his mech, but not before snagging Kisame's sword and taking it with him.

Now Kisame reached his breaking point. He took Samehada. No one can touch Samehada. It was impossible.

"What are you doing to Samehada?" Kisame roared defiantly.

"I'm taking it to my lab. I want to learn more about these shinobi swords. I'm going to disassemble it and see what makes these big Mist swords tick."

"NO! Come back…my sword."

"Smell ya later, sharky, " Tails said right before the doors sealed shut and Mecha Kyuubi rocketed away, leaving Kisame alone on the island that plummeted through the clouds until it disappeared from sight.

Tails barely heard the gigantic splash that the once Floating Island made when it hit the ocean. By that time, he was already flying high in the skies in the Tornado. A quick blast of Kyuubi chakra burned away the pinkness, restoring its classic red color. He sank into the pilot's seat, gazing up at the infinite sky.

He had a funny feeling of yet another otherworldly presence nearby. One just as bloodthirsty as the Kyuubi. Even in the brightest sunshine, that Samehada sword seemed to cast its own dark cloud. It no longer moved, but whatever lived inside was still there, lurking deep within.

"_That is one freaky looking sword." _Tails was amazed and terrified of the Legendary Mist Sword since the first time he laid eyes on it. Now that it was in his possession, he finally had the chance to study it up close. It was a dangerous souvenir to bring back home, but with it, he could create a line of weapons this world had never seen before. To really win this war against Aaktsuki, he knew he needed new weapons. For him and his friends. They were now targets of Akatsuki. They needed to defend themselves.

The metal plate on his forehead flashed brightly in the sunlight. A symbol that he was a real ninja now. Everything he had learned since he first met the Konoha ninjas he had used to devastating effect. The Akatsuki were sure to be furious when news would arrive about their latest defeat.

Let them come. Miles Tails Prower, Master of the Kyuubi no Kitsune wasn't going down without a fight.

**To Be Continued...**

* * *

New chapters will be coming along sooner, God willing. I'm just getting back into the groove.


	19. The Devil's Blacksmith

**Update Day! I love it. Don't you? I should do it more often. Here's the next overdue chapter.**

**Dragon Man 180: Maybe Kakashi is just a genius who prefers to train other geniuses. Luckily, Naruto has managed pretty well despite Kakashi's lack of training. Yeah, I'm heading back to Naruto world now. We'll see what's happening there.**

**AnimeQueen17: Thanks a lot. Tails is starting to get a little crazy. D:**

**Lycropath: Sasuke's Chidori Eisou is more like a spear and it gets weaker the more he increases its range and form manipulation. Tails keeps his jutsu to a smaller, more focused form, so his blade is much sharper. It can cut through anything. Except other forms of focused chakra. Samehada managed to parry against it because it ate away at Tails' chakra as they fought and the sword must be made of some special chakra enhanced metal. The reason why Hinata stayed behind will be explained eventually. I wrote a scene with her in it, but it got cut out due to length. Knuckles is really very strong. He just needs to adjust himself to the shinobi way of thinking, but he'll get his upgrade, especially after he meets Sakura again. He's got his own way of showing Sakura how much he cares. Can't say anything about Sasuke yet, but there actually is a cyborg character appearing. Wait till you see who it's gonna be. Your latest Shinobi Tails was very well done. Great stuff as always. ^_^**

**Spector29: There are couples here. Mostly NarutoxHinata. That seems to be one everybody wants. Might be some TailsxCream, probably some more.**

**Kage Bijuu: Everyone is eagerly awaiting their reunions. Tails and Cream are gonna get closer eventually. Read on and see.**

**Asher Tye: Kakashi is very eccentric like that. He's still one of the most powerful ninjas in the village. Don't count Kisame out yet. He's the toughest member of Akatsuki. Yeah, Tails has a real problem with the demon that shares his mind. You have to give Tails a little credit, though. He refused to kill Kisame after disarming him and he did everything he could to protect his friends. Seeing Tails again might be tough on Sonic. That could work out in a number of different ways. Some of them being pretty horrific.**

**Clever Phoenix: Thanks!:D Tails is very strong in this story and he worked very hard for it. More Shadow sarcasm coming up! XD**

**NejiHyuuga270: hehehe. Poor Kisame getting pwned by Tails. He must be going insane!**

**Zohaku: Amy still has the sword. She took it with her. We'll see how Naruto's training is going, and at some point, we'll see what happens with Sasuke. I think there will be a lot more funny Tobi scenes coming up.**

**A Sonic and Naruto Fan: Yeah! Still alive and kicking. All the Sonic characters have so much potential that we never get to see. I want to try and bring that all out. Shadow is known for treating others very callously and I think he's aware of it by now, so he has fun with it. I'm sure he's got a good heart, but there's no way someone like him is ever gonna act sweet and nice to anybody. I'm working up towards a Caliburn appearance. He's going to be an important part in Sonic's own story arc. Sonic blowing fire everywhere, swinging his sword around…should be really cool. I keep up to date with the manga, so if a big thing happens in the manga, it will show up in some form here. I'm thinking right now about when to introduce Killer Bee and see what he's gonna do. Hinata's confession thing is unbelievable. I'm really wondering what's supposed to happen with Naruto and Hinata. She trained with Shadow in this story, so she could be a lot more aggressive with him.**

**Dev the dog: Yeah, you know it's bad if Itachi is laughing at you. Poor Tails. By the way, I discovered some of your fanart. I hope you don't mind I linked it up.**

**Mattdude2489: Yup. Emo pills…Shadow's darkest secret**

**iluvtails: Yes, I got some pretty angry hate mail. Even if it takes forever, I promise to always keep the chapters coming.**

**Mya The Hedgie and Victoria: Thanks for taking the time to read through all those chapters. I'm glad you liked them all. I love Amy with her new sword. It fits her so well.**

**Salamander Hanzo: Thank you.**

**Blue Mage Quartet: Thanks! I'm so glad you enjoyed all the action and humor. It seems that Amy and Zabuza's sword were truly made for each other. I think I'm really starting to enjoy Amy now as a character after writing this chapter. Kakashi is teaching Tails everything he knows, including all the perverted stuff, but there were hints that Tails was turning into a perv on his own, anyway.**

**Morph: Thanks! I try to bring in things from the recent chapters if they work. Tere's something about Amy's fiery personality that attracts Zabuza's sword. I also imagined Sasuke Chao as a lot like a dark chao, and Hinata Chao is a lot like a light chao.**

**Cmpteraddict: Sure thing. I promise to continue.**

**Dan: Thank you for all the multiple nice reviewing! I really appreciate that. If you're sticking around, I got lots more stuff cooking.**

**Mana the Cat Magician: Heh. Don't worry about lateness here. Amy's still got her tarot cards. This chapter is all about Amy, Shadow, and Knuckles introducing themselves to Konoha. Half the people in the village ended up being written in for this one. Sonic will be here also and I'm still working on Sonic's get out of jail storyline. Orochimaru has been going crazy over Super Sonic's power since the story began. I thought a little bit about Tikal and I htink I have a good idea for her. Yes, I've thought about the negative powers of the chaos emeralds, so somebody could be going under a dark transformation. I'd love to see your sprites, so please send me an e-mail! I saw some sprites on Deviant art before, so I think they can be posted up there.**

**Angelus-Alvus: Yeah, I hope so, too**

**Black Phoenix Shoe: Sonic's gonna have a really hard time with being Orochimaru's prisoner, but I'm planning on his escape.**

**Chapter XIX: The Devil's Blacksmith**

Shadow had been in this new world for less than a second and already he decided he hated the place. After being flung through the time space gate, he and Amy and Knuckles were spat out the other end into the empty blue sky, the earth waiting several hundred feet above the earth. The first inhabitant they met was a passing crow who Shadow swore called him an idiot as it flew by.

"A guy can't even fall to his death around here without some stupid crows. I'll teach them a lesson," Shadow muttered, glancing up at his two teammates

Amy thrashed her arms wildly while still holding on tight to her newly acquired sword. Shadow winced at the thought that if she wasn't careful swinging her sword around like that, she might end up slicing Knuckles to pieces. Knuckles' kept his mouth and eyes shut, silently falling like the red brick he was. Probably trying to block out Amy's shill cries. Falling from a huge height didn't seem faze him. If you lived and guarded the Floating Island, falling off said island was always an occupational hazard.

"Shadow! Stop looking up my dress!" Amy shouted.

"You think I care about seeing your cheap, crap stained panties? Maybe if your ass didn't take up so much space…" Shadow left his sentence trail off. Might as well be arguing against the wind, he thought. He barely made out whatever Amy was screaming about.

"I'll be waiting for you on the ground. Have a nice trip," he snapped his fingers and a burst of light teleported him away.

Amy watched as Shadow vanished away, eyes filled with fear and burning with anger. "He left us. I can't believe he left us to die like that. Knuckles, we're gonna die now," she grabbed onto Knuckles and shook him.

Knuckles slowly opened his eyes "I'm aware of that. Now if you want to live, just calm down and do exactly what I tell you. See those cliffs below us?" he pointed downwards. "Ready your sword and aim for them. We'll use that to slow our descent."

Amy looked to see a village right below here surrounded by green forests. There was a mountain standing right behind the village.

Amy's lifted the sword up high. Rays of sunlight scattered across its shiny surface. Taking point, she plunged the blade into the mountainside, striking so hard that it exploded deep into the granite, sending a cloud of debris into the air. Amy shut her eyes tight as a shower of sparks sprayed from the rock. Knuckles shoved both his spiky fists into the mountain. The sword wounds he took from Kisame made it too painful to glide, but punching things was even more natural to him than breathing. With fists firmly embedded into the rock, he slid down the mountain alongside Amy. An earsplitting screeching sound accompanied them all the way down.

After safely setting her feet on terra firma, Amy pulled Kubikiri Houchi's giant blade out of the rock. It was covered with smoke and hot to the touch. Looking up, Knuckles and Amy saw that the mountain was a monument, carved with the faces of some famous people. Amy and Knuckles had no idea who they were, but the one on the far right, the only woman of the bunch, now had a deep gash running down its face. Its nose crumbled to the point where it broke off and rolled its way down towards the red tower at the base of the mountain. Amy winced at the sound of demolished stone and shattered glass when the boulder smashed through the top level, utterly demolishing it.

"We're gonna be in such big trouble, aren't we?" Amy said when the dust settled.

"I see you both made it down in one piece," came a voice from the shadows. Soon, Shadow emerged from the darkness to rejoin them.

"Good God, Shadow. You can even do that in broad daylight?"

"I carry the darkness with me wherever I go," he said in an angsty tone.

Amy marched right up to Shadow and brought the sharp side of her sword dangerously close to Shadow's face. "Shadow, don't you ever do that again or I will hit you with my sword so hard that—"

Shadow scoffed at her. "Hit me? You'll do no such thing. You don't have your Piko Piko Hammer anymore. That's a sword. It doesn't hit things. It slices them. I don't think you have the right kind of stomach that this fighting style entails. It's messy."

It didn't take long for a crowd to gather at the scene. Doors all over town opened and people came spilling into the streets. Ninjas leapt out from the windows, from the trees, and some just poofed into existence right there on the spot. All of them gathering together to see what new disturbance came to strike the village. Some were there just to gawk. Others came armed to the teeth with kunai and shuriken ready.

"Knuckles, why are all these people staring at us?"

Knuckles shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe its because you're a hedgehog. Maybe it's because you're pink hedgehog. Or maybe it's because you're a pink hedgehog with a giant sword. Maybe it's because they all saw as falling from the sky and destroying an important monument on the way down."

"Well, I guess I can't complain about being the center of attention," Amy said. "Still, maybe we should find some people we know. I know. Would anybody like to know his or her fortune?" she called out to the crowd. "Anybody? No? Hey, guys, I was just thinking. Now's a good time to look at our own fortunes. It's a new universe with new rules. We have to see what our fates hold in store for us."

"Waste of time…" Shadow muttered and drew a card since he had nothing better to do. He looked down and saw an idiot on the card.

"And what's this supposed to be?"

Amy tried to cover her giggling mouth. "You got the Fool, Shadow."

"This card deck thinks I'm a fool?"

"No, Shadow. That's not how it works. The cards are just messengers. It's the entire universe that thinks you're a fool."

"Is that right?" Shadow asked. A faint glow of light ran across his fingers and sent the card up in flames. "Well, this 'universe' and I are going to have a little chat later."

"Hey! Don't burn my cards just because your fortune sucks," Amy scolded him. "I already lost a card in that fight with Kisame. It's very hard to get a new deck."

Shadow crossed his arms and stuck his nose in the air. "Let's just see the universe call me a fool now."

"It's not as bad as it sounds. It just means that you have a long journey ahead where you will discover life's mysteries."

"My turn," Knuckles impatiently reached in and pulled another card, almost spilling the entire deck in the process.

"What did you get, Knuckles?" Amy asked.

The echidna stared down at the card in hand, scratching his head, looking very perplexed. "Uh…it shows two naked people about to make love together under a tree. Is that good?"

"Is it ever!" Amy replied excitedly. "You got the Lovers! That's like the most important card you can get. That means there will be big things in store for you."

"What kind of big things?" he asked, still sounding confused. Even Tails' weird as hell inventions were easier to deal with than this tarot card business.

"Who knows? You just have to wait and see. That's part of the fun. Now let me hold on to that so no more cards get destroyed," Amy snatched the card back while shooting a nasty glare at Shadow.

"What about your fortune, Amy?" Knuckles asked.

"Oh, I don't need to look at the cards. I already know my fate," she said confidently. "My fortune is that I'm going to find Sonic and rescue him. He'll be so happy to see me that he'll kneel before me and ask to marry me right there on the spot."

"We might as well start talking to these people if we want to get anywhere," Shadow said. Do you remember much about those ninjas we met before?"

"Not really, but I remember what they smelled like," Knuckles said.

Amy arched an eyebrow. "Why would you remember a thing like that?"

"In battle, there's hundreds of ways to obstruct an enemy's vision as well as hearing," Knuckles explained. "But the oft neglected olfactory sense is not so easily blocked. Smell is the most reliable way of identifying and remembering a threat clearly. If you're really skilled, the range of detection is the most far reaching."

"Do you smell anybody now?"

"As a matter of fact I do. Yes…it's…" A very large smile started to form on the echidna's face. Something that never happened before.

"Knuckles is smiling," Amy whispered into Shadow's ear. "Knuckles never smiles. Should we do something?"

"You don't understand. It's…"

The big doors of the Hokage Tower opened up and Haruno Sakura stepped out of the entrance way, her face partially covered by the load of books in her arms.

"Hey, does anybody know what made that noise?" she asked. "I was in the basement library and I heard this loud crash and—"

"SAKURA!"

At the shout of her name, Sakura moved her head into view just in time for a big spiked fist to slam her in the face. The giant stack of books went flying into the air as Sakura came crashing down. Her face flattened into the dirt.

Everyone stood back as shock took over the crowd. Amy stood mouth wide open. Shadow smirked a little.

"Knuckles! What did you just do?" Amy shrieked.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm starting a fight!" He raised his fists and dug his feet into the ground, readying his battle stance. "Stand back. This is going to be the brawl of the century!"

"What the Hell was that?" Sakura groggily tried to stand up. Putting a hand to her battered head, she collected her bearings and straightened up. Her vision became distorted and hazy. As for her assailant, all she could make out was a red blurry form. It would take a minute to clear her vision and get a good look at the guy.

But when she did, there would be hell to pay.

Feeling confident now, Knuckles rushed to land another punch, the ground quaked under his blocky shoes. Sakura sensed his presence through the ground's vibrations and caught his fist in time, halting the echidna's momentum completely. Killing intent glinted off her eyes as she pressed down hard. His knuckles started to crack.

Knuckles didn't believe it. His own namesakes that could punch through metal with ease, that were supposed to be indestructible, the central instrument in his role as Guardian, now cracked under the pressure of this human girl's arm. He couldn't even escape her grip. With Knuckles trapped at her mercy, Sakura pulled back her other fist, ready to deal a devastating blow. Knuckles braced himself for the strike that landed across his jaw with shattering force.

A spattering of blood spouted from his mouth, but Knuckles rolled with the punch and sprang back on his feet instantly. Restoring balance to his stance and cracking his jaw into place, Knuckles returned to the offensive. The human and the echidna's spiky fist collided again. The impact ruptured the area with the force of an earthquake. Amy had to stab her sword into the ground just to keep from getting blown over.

After that last punch from Sakura, Knuckles' face looked like a pound of ground hamburger meat. Amy had to turn away at the sight of Knuckle's mangled face but she couldn't believe that he was still actually grinning. "He's lost it. That's the only explanation."

"You live alone all your life and talk to rocks all the time, what do you expect?" Shadow said. "At some point, you just have to crack."

"Actually, he's acting completely sane," stepping out of the crowd came the artist ninja Sai with a serene smile on his face, as if nothing unusual was going on.

"Perhaps I can explain what's going on," Sai said, holding out a thick book. "I borrowed this book on Mobius's history that I've been reading for some time now. It contains lots of useful information on your homeworld. You see, you're friend is initiating an ancient echidna ritual seen only in the noble Guardian clan of the Floating Island. They're a warrior clan, so most important rituals involve some kind of fistfight. Most notably when they're looking for a mate."

Amy blinked. "…He's…chosen a mate?"

Sai nodded. "If the information in this book is true, then yes. And the mate doesn't have to be an echidna. Anyone who can be considered a strong warrior is considered."

Amy resisted the urge to faint. "You mean Sakura? Just becasue she punches really hard? You can't be serious! Shadow, tell me he's not serious!"

"The way Knuckles is going at it, he's dead serious," said Shadow.

Sai continued flipping through the pages. "In echidna society, it is not looks, brains, personality, status, or even species that define a worthy mate. It's strength. That's everything to them."

"But how do they...you know...?" At a loss for words, Amy tried to illustrate her point with some awkward gestures. The way Sai's smile curled, it looked like he got the point.

"Once a mate is selected, she is taken to the Master Emerald and has her genetic coding realigned to be compatible."

"So the echidnas choose their mates by clobbering them to death. No wonder they're all extinct," Shadow said wryly.

Amy hefted her zanbato onto her shoulder and headed in the direction of the fight. "We have to put a stop to this. That can't be allowed."

"Oh no," Shadow pulled her back. "Let's just see where this is going. This should be interesting."

"I'm afraid Shadow is right," Sai said. "Interfering with the fight after it has begun will only enrage an echidna further."

It should not have been a fair fight at all. Sakura was the one at full strength. Knuckles was the one low on energy, battle weary and wounded from the last fight. But none of that mattered now. Knuckles was so on fire with his fighting spirit that flames licked the edges of his fists.

Knuckles was famous for his strength, but it wasn't his flaming fists that overwhelmed Sakura. It was his speed. People often forgot that he could beat Sonic in a race if he tried. Every punch flew in out of nowhere lightning fast. Impossible to telegraphically predict his next move, Sakura relied on her stamina to endure the onslaught of fists. No time to come up with any fancy ninja tricks. This was a straight up street brawl. It killed her to think how thuggish this made her look. On the other hand, she couldn't hide the joy of pounding his ugly face in. Sakura launched a punch that buried deep into the echidna's stomach. Knuckles doubled over and clutched his stomach. An axe kick followed that sent him crashing into the ground. Sakura's foot dug into his spine, keeping him down long enough to reach for a heavy steel pipe. With her bare hands, she twisted the metal around Knuckles' arms, locking them together.

Stepping a few yards away from Knuckles, Sakura sighed heavily and wiped the sweat, blood, and grime off her forehead. "That should buy me a breather."

As predicted, Knuckles rose to his feet. With a grunt, he shattered the steel bindings on his arms. It was at that moment that Sakura's vision cleared up and she got the chance to get a get look him.

"You! I remember you now. You're that hideous, brutish looking thing from Mobius!"

"She remembers who I am…" Knuckles' heart swelled with emotion. Ready to take the fight impossible levels, he leapt to the top of the Hokage Tower and loudly proclaimed to the entire world. "Yes, Sakura-san! It is I, Knuckles the Echidna. Born on an island in the heavens, with the blood of my ancestors flowing inside me, last in the noble line of Guardians of the ancient Master Emerald, I have traversed the stars and sailed across time and space to save our worlds from impending doom and restore the balance of the chaos emeralds…and to seek your love."

Sakura went white as a ghost and almost dropped dead right there. This echidna was serious.

Amy looked at the whole scene, astonished. "I…never knew Knuckles could get so passionate like that."

"He's been repressed for a very long time," said Shadow, shaking his head.

"The truth is, you really have to hand it to Knuckles," Amy said. "He's normally very shy around women."

"I don't have times for this game!" Sakura shouted as she balled her fists. The injuries on her body healed as she attacked, her fist raised and loaded with destructive force.

Knuckles angled his arm just in time to absorb Sakura's incoming punch. The shockwave from her monstrous strength vibrated through his entire body, penetrating right into the marrow of his bones. A weaker opponent would've had their bones shattered to dust and their innards liquified, but the warrior Guardian stood strong. Rearing his fist back, the echidna redirected all that energy right back at her with one punch across the face, sending her reeling.

"You're right. The time for playing games has ended," Knuckles announced. He slammed both fists into the ground, releasing a sonic wave through the earth, blowing dozens of screaming bystanders into the air and knocked Sakura off balance. Before she could regain her footing, Knuckles leapt up and with a blow to the head that struck her down and consumed her in a ball of fire.

Sakura's body exploded into white smoke, only to be replaced by a wooden log.

"The Replacement jutsu," Knuckles cursed himself, having just fallen for the most elementary of ninjutsus. "When did she…?"

He felt a tapping on the shoulder. Knuckles spun around to meet a furious surge of chakra and an incoming view of Sakura's fist.

"You think you can punch? Let me show you a real punch!" Sakura clubbed Knuckles with an overhead hammer blow then followed with a series of short jabs that was sure to disorient him long enough to deliver the finishing blow. A true punch. One that would put every punch she ever brought down on anyone ever to shame. With the echidna left in a daze, Sakura stepped back and summoned all her chakra into her arm.

"SHANNARO!" Sakura shouted her battle cry. She wound up her arm and unleashed an uppercut that nearly took Knuckles' head clean off his shoulders and launched him skyward. She catapulted herself after and the fistfight continued while they were airborne. Their punches struck like thunderclaps in the sky.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a much quieter part of town by the village gates, Izumo and Kotetsu sat at the guard post, keeping watch for any strange threat to the village.

"I hear there's some kind of commotion going on in the center of town," Izumo said. "Do you think maybe we should check it out?"

"No," said Kotetsu. "The Hokage will just scream at us for abandoning our posts. You know how she is. For all we know that could be just a distraction to get us to leave so the real enemy will be able to just walk right in uninterrupted. The Hokage will be very proud of us for thinking that far ahead."

Here comes somebody now," Izumo pointed to a figure that just emerged from the woods. It was just a man, completely unarmed, pulling with him a rickety cart filled to the brim with cabbages.

"State your business, old man." Kotetsu said firmly.

"I'm just a simple cabbage merchant and I'm not an old man," said the merchant. "I've come to make a delivery within this village."

Kotetsu quickly rose from his seat. The merchant flinched back a bit, worried that maybe talking back to a ninja wasn't so smart.

Kotetsu nodded towards Izumo to open the gate. "All right. You're good. Go on ahead."

A huge wave of relief washed over the cabbage guy when the two guards smiled and welcomed him in through the opened gates. With a relaxed smile on his face, he inhaled a breath of fresh air. "At last. I can't believe I finally make a delivery without incident. I thought I'd never get away from the other countries with that crazy war going on. This country is so much friendlier, so peaceful. So much more agreeable than Ba Sing Se. Much nicer than Omashu, anyway."

It was a quiet, relaxing stroll towards the center of town. Ninjas were known for being silent after all, and the village's loudest shinobi was out of town. He even stopped to give one of his cabbages a hug.

He was almost at the end of his journey, until something from above cast a shadow over his face. Up in the sky, he saw a comet. It was a bright red, glowing comet wreathed in flames, followed by an electric trail of pink energy. The merchant could only duck for cover and shudder in horror as the comet fell and struck the cabbage cart. The little wooden cart was reduced to splinters with every single cabbage burnt to cinders. The merchant fell to his knees amidst the remains of his cart and watched helplessly as the remaining cabbages spilled into the street.

"Not again…My ca-ca-b-b-bages…"

In the crater where the comet struck, Knuckles and Sakura struggled out of the wreckage. Knuckles almost made to his knees before Sakura nailed him down and seized his neck in an iron tight grip.

Sakura snarled as her fingers clenched tightly around his throat. "Don't think you're going anywhere. You started this fight, but I'm going to finish it,"

"You're scary," Knuckles replied in a chocked whisper. "I can't tell you how long it's been since I've been scared in a fistfight." His knee shot up and struck her chin, blowing her backwards off her feet. Now free of her hold, Knuckles rose up and delivered a chambering punch that sent Sakura careening through the air, landing in a heap several blocks down.

With both fighters gone, the cabbage guy was left alone, his sorrow as thick as the dust that clouded the air.

"My cabbages!" He raised his fists to the heavens and screamed, his cries echoed throughout the village. Standing alone in the crater, a dusty cabbage drifted across the empty street like a tumbleweed.

* * *

Not too far away, Teuchi, owner of the Ichiraki ramen shop stormed into the kitchen, getting ready to open his shop for business . From what things sounded like outside, he could tell it was going to be a busy day. A lot of people were going to be hungry.

"Ayame, where is that order of cabbages I sent for?"

Teuchi's daughter Ayame stood over the boiling pot of ramen soup and kept her concentration on watching the heat. Seeing how everything was mixing in nicely, she brought it to a slow boil.

"Ayame! Are you listening to me? Ayame!"

Ayame groaned silently. She hated it when her father got like this. The stress of running this fast paced business was starting to take a toll on his old age. It wouldn't be long now before she would have to take over. "Nothing yet, Father. Hopefully, they should be arriving any minute."

"It should be her by now," he grumbled. "I hate late deliveries. I can't perfect my master soup recipe if I don't have all the right ingredients. With Naruto gone, business has plummeted. And this tsukemen idea didn't take off well at all. We really need to stay on top of things now."

"I think the soup is fine as it is. Really, just smell it," Ayame said. "It will calm your nerves."

Teuchi came over gave a whiff of the steam that wafted through the kitchen. The miso was just right, with the perfect blend of katsoubushi and kombu, balanced to create a mouthwatering dashi. It took just one sniff to bring a smile back to his face. Everything was at peace with the world again. It even returned a few years back to the old man's face.

"Yes, yes, it truly is delicious," Teuchi said with a warm smile.

"You see? Ramen cooking is supposed to be relaxing. I think what we really need is to expand this bar, get some newer, shinier kitchen gear, maybe start decorating the stand to show the village just how special our ramen really is."

"Good idea. I've been thinking of making some plans to renovate this place."

The curtain at the entrance parted open and a long white haired ninja wearing a horned hitai-ite stepped in. "Hello? Are you guys open?"

"Come in, Jiraiya-sama. The legendary sannin has the honor of being our first customer of the day. Come in" Teuchi beckoned the ninja master to come sit down. "Everything is ready. Ayame and I were just talking about some changes we would like to make to our establishment."

"An excellent idea, Teuchi-san. You should really expand your business," Jiraiya said. "If I were you, I would hire a whole staff of cute waitresses and dress them up in skin tight outfits. I'm thinking of tee shirts that'll give a good look at that cleavage. And don't forget the hot pants. I'd eat every single meal here if Ayame-chan dressed like that."

"That's my daughter!" In a rare moment, Teuchi opened his eyes, revealing large eyes filled with fiery rage. Ayame didn't take to the suggestion any better. Most kunoichi in this situation would have reached for their kunai at his point. Ayame went for the much bigger, sharper kitchen knife.

"I'm sure Naruto would appreciate it," Jiraiya went on, ignoring the rising wave of killing intent. "You don't think he comes just for the ramen, do you? I even have an idea for a new slogan." Jiraiya stretched out his arms to help envision a gigantic sign. "Ichiraku Ramen: Our ramen is as hot as the ass that serves it."

Ayame pressed on the knife's handle so hard her knuckles turned white, yet she still managed a polite smile. She could only see bad things happening to the business if it was known that a sannin was murdered here. "Are you going to order something or not?"

"Hmm…perhaps I'll have the—" Jiraiya stopped as his ears picked up a distant rumbling. It was growing louder and louder and heading towards the bar.

"Get down!" Jiraiya leaped over the counter and pinned Teuchi and Ayame to the floor just before the roof exploded and crashed down on top of them. Jiraiya's spiny hair extended to shield the three of them from the falling rubble. From the corner of his eye, the sannin saw the source of the attack. An alien being, horrifying to behold fell crashed into the bar. He was smaller than most humans, but Jiraiya had a good idea of the power contained in those fists of his. The sannin regarded the red monster very carefully. Perhaps it was an oni. He hadn't encountered such a creature in a very ling time. Before he could approach the red creature, Sakura burst in and continued to pummel his face in. Punch after punch, she unleashed every move in her arsenal to knock him out, but no matter how hard she hit, nothing could wipe that grin off the echidna's face, nor could anything stop him from punching back even harder.

A storm of ramen noodles rained down as the battled raged. Teuchi and Ayame clasped their ears shut against the chaos of clattering pots and pans that resounded all around them. Sakura grabbed hold of Knuckles' head and dunked it into the pot of boiling soup. Jiraiya cringed at the cruelty, even if the red thing was a dangerous oni. Sakura must be unleashing the fierce temper she inherited from Tsunade, Jiriaya thought. The same kind of temper that nearly killed him. Ending the fight peacefully was not an option.

Knuckles pulled his face out of the pot. Jiraiya studied him carefully, noting not a single burn on his face. Of course, Knuckles made his home near a lava filled reef. A little hot soup couldn't faze him. Knuckles grabbed the metal pot and bashed it into Sakura's forehead. Sakura staggered back. The image of multiple echidnas swam around the demolished kitchen.

Red steam rose from his body as the fiery chakra sizzled off Knuckles skin. His fist flashed and crunched into Sakura's jaw, sending her crashing through the wall, leaving what was left of Ichiraku's structure to crumble to the ground in a heap of rubble. Only with Jiraiya's help did Teuchi and Ayame manage to escape uninjured. Leaving the ruins, Knuckles' and Sakura's punching contest took them back to the center of the village in front of the Hokage's tower, right where they started.

Despite the fierce tremors that resulted from their blows, a gathering of nearly half the villagers circled around the fighters, including Konoha's top jounin. One of them stood out from the rest with his abnormally bushy eyebrows and his the skin tight green spandex. Maito Gai watched with enthusiasm, his perfect set of teeth shined as he stood transfixed on the fight. Asuma stood next to Gai. He watched the fight, but focused more on his cigarette than anything else. His face showed more concern of whether or not this whole scene would mean anymore work for him today

"Ah! My ears have picked up the news that there is a passionate contest of strength being displayed in the center of our village. So, I see that my youthful senses were correct," he paused to allow another toothy shine. "Who is this strange otherworldly challenger?"

Asuma took a long, drawn drag from his cigarette. "Sakura is taking on some kind of monster that attacked the village. I think it's trying to eat her or something. Hey, don't get any closer.

Gai ignored his colleague's warning and edged in as close as he could. His eyes rapidly followed Knuckles' movements, carefully observing every punch and block, every twsit of the feet.

"Ah, a weight trainng master. Those shoes must weigh a thousand pounds each. What great technique! Such masterful strokes! I must see more. The raw passion is intoxicating. Why, in a few days training with me, he could be…beyond impossible levels."

One thing Gai had to note to his disappointment was how every punch was a split second slower than the last one. He came too late to the fight and he realized sadly that this was about to end. Gai chalked it up to bad youthful karma that he wasn't present at the beginning of the fight. Both fighters had gone well beyond their limits to impossible levels, and now they were drained from it, physically and mentally.

Knuckles realized it, too. It was time to finish this. He slid back to create from distance from Sakura. Gathering his remaining strength into his feet, Knuckles stomped the ground. A giant boulder shot up from the earth. With one solid punch, he sent the huge boulder flying towards Sakura. Flashing both arms out, she caught the rock in her hands.

"I've. Had. Enough!" Sakura raised the boulder over her head and smashed it onto Knuckles' skull. The great big rock shattered into a million pieces that buried the echidna under a pile dust and earth.

After a minute the dust settled. Knuckles didn't get up. Sakura finally collapsed to her knees.

When things got quiet, Amy and Shadow approached the beaten and buried Knuckles. Amy wrung her hands around the hilt of her sword worriedly. "Uh, Shadow. Is he dead?"

"No. I can sense his life force still there. He will live."

"Are you sure? Because he looks dead to me."

"He's just unconscious," Shadow assured her. "…Extremely unconscious."

"Indeed! While this contest of strength brought destruction to half the village and many cabbages, the echidna yet still has breath in his body," Gai proclaimed proudly. "The breath of a true warrior is unextinguished, exploding with the undying flames of youth, blossoming with the spring time rose of—"

"Oh, will you just shut up already!" a loud voice bellowed.

All of Konoha fell deathly silent.

Many gasps could be heard as all eyes turned to acknowledge the presence of the Hokage. The crowd parted like the Red Sea to make way for a certain blonde woman in a green grass robe that did little to hide her impressive cleavage. Shadow smelled a bit of sake under her breath.

"Sakura!" she approached the first victim of her wrath. "How do you think this reflects on me if my prized student is brawling in the streets, destroying everything in sight? Do you realize how many lives you just endangered?"

Sakura kneeled before her master and bowed her head in shame. "I'm so sorry. Please forgive me, Tsunade-sama."

"Oh, stop your groveling. You look like you already received the punishment you deserve. Get yourself cleaned up and take that thing to the infirmary. I want him up and talking as soon as possible." Then, she turned to face the rest of the villagers.

Many people shrunk back in fear. This was one of those moments when no one was going to get off easily. Right now, Knuckles, who lied practically comatose was the luckiest guy around. "Unbelievable! I can't take even the smallest sake break in the morning without a catastrophe striking this village. I want to know what's going on and I want to know right now! Why is my office in ruins? Who…?" she pointed a finger towards the decimated face on the Hokage monument. "Who did that to my face?"

"Wow, she's scary. She must be really strong," Amy said. She trembled just like everyone else, but inside, she was pleased. She never would have guessed a woman commanded so much power and fear in a shinobi village.

"Must be the Hokage's wife or something," Shadow muttered.

Tsunade's ears perked up at that comment and she turned to face the hedgehog. Her legendary bosom was right in his face. "I am the Hokage! Who the Hell are you?"

"Since you asked…" Shadow pulled out a black marker and proceeded to sign his name on Tsunade's chest. "My name is **Shadow the Hedgehog**. That's **S **as in **"Sexy."** **H** as in **"Holy shit! Here comes Shadow."** **A** as in **"All Hail Shadow,"** **D** as in **"Dead Sexy." O** as in **"Oh my God, it's Shadow." W** as in **"Worship me. I'm Shadow."** Do you want me to write **"The Ultimate Lifeform"** there, too? Why not? There's plenty of room."

Tsunade stood stunned and speechless. "Where are the guards?"

"You wanted to see us, Hokage-sama?" Izumo and Kotetsu rushed to present themselves before Tsunade.

"How did these intruders get in the village?" she asked in a very calm and subdued tone.

"There was nothing we could do about it, Hokage-sama. They fell right out of the sky." Izumo protested.

"Yeah. We just watch the entrance gate. You expect us to guard the sky, too?"

Tsunade's response was to punch Kotetsu hard enough to launch him into the sky. "I do now! From now on, any otherworldly visitors must be brought to my attention before they start tearing apart my village. Got it?"

Izumo nodded meekly.

"Now did anything else come through that portal when they arrived here?"

"I think there might've been a few smaller creatures that came in with them, but I'm not sure."

"Then make sure!"

While Tsunade continued spazzing and her assistant Shizune ran up to her with vain attempts to calm her master down, Shikamaru showed up rubbing his eyes, looking like he just woke up from a long nap.

"What's all the commotion, Asuma-sensei?" he asked.

"An alien invasion," Asuma said. "Don't ask me to make any sense of this. I figured maybe you knew these people."

"Actually, I do," he said. Sighing to himself, Shikamaru stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked over to the hedgehogs.

"Hey, you're that Ultimate Lifeform guy," Shikamaru said. "Aren't you supposed to be good at sensing chaos emeralds?"

"Maybe," Shadow gave a nod. "What's it to you?"

"I've been given the troublesome task of trying to locate the missing emeralds. I have one of them with me that we're doing research on. I could use your help."

Shadow allowed himself a smile. "Right down to business, eh? I like that. Maybe you should be in charge of this run down village instead of that old bag there. Show me this chaos emerald."

"What did he just call me?" Tsunade turned to glare at the dark hedgehog. Killing intent seemed to little effect on him. His opinions of others were obviously too low for that to work on him, but ripping his spine in half should be just as effective on him as on anyone else

"Tsunade-sama! Please stop," Shizune begged. "Enough destruction has been caused enough."

Fine," Tsunade dropped the urge to kill. "I'm getting another drink.

"I think i need one too," Asuma said as he tossed his cigarette aside and gave an odd stare to his student and the hedgehog. He thought the dark was borderline psychotic, but here he and Shadow and Shikamaru seemed to be carrying on a conversation like old friends, complaining about everything.

* * *

Step by step, Sakura slowly headed towards the hospital. She groaned with every move she made. Her eyesight was still distorted with strange shapes randomly appearing in her field of vision. One of those shapes hovering in front of her looked a lot like Sasuke. It was only when she tried pushing it out of the way, did she realize that she could touch it. And that it could talk.

"Chao?" That little Sasuke wasn't a hallucination. He was the real thing. A tiny Sasuke with little wings and a strange ball floating above his head, but it was Sasuke. Same Sasuke scowl and everything. Just smaller.

"SASUKE-KUN!" Sakura cried. Forgetting everything else, she snatched the little Sasuke and gave a bone crushing hug. Sasuke Chao didn't have any bones, but he still suffered the pain of getting the crap squeezed out of him. Despite everything that had happened, the flames of Sakura's fan girlish love for Sasuke never died. "You shrunk a lot, but that's okay. I'm just so happy you're back."

"Chao!" Sasuke Chao cried, spitting fire and shooting lightning in his attempt to escape.

"Don't make a fuss, Sasuke-kun. I've had a very hard day. Let's go home," Sakura barely even noticed the chao's attacks and she hugged him tight to her chest the entire way home.

* * *

Tsunade had finally made it back to the bar where she sat in peace before everything happened, but to her chagrin, there stood Maito Gai blocking the entrance.

"Hokage-sama, may I have a word with you?"

Tsunade scowled at him fiercely. "I have a splitting headache right now. I'm really not in the mood to talk to anyone, Gai. Especially you."

"Ah, but I think I can change your mood," Gai said brightly. "I have watched that echidna display a most youthful fighting spirit. He's quite strong. I would like to request permission to train him so that I may mold him in the prisitne image of youthfulness."

"Do what you want. You're in charge. The less I have to deal with these strangers, the better. Now will you please go?"

"I will do more than merely go. I will exit gracefully towards the sun where all youthful possibilities are waiting to burst forth." With that, Gai ran off with a big smile on his face. When he was gone, Tsunade felt the throbbing pangs in her head start to calm down a little.

With her office smashed to pieces, the one saving grace of the day was that Tsunade had the perfect excuse to ignore her paper work and hit the bar again. When she finally sat down to forget her troubles, she saw a familiar face had come to sit down with her.

"You're more hot tempered today than usual," Jiraiya poured a newly opened bottle of hot sake into her cup. "Isn't it great how sake just melts all your troubles away, no matter how obnoxious or troublesome they are? Like a hot, relaxing mist, poured into a cup."

"Why am I not surprised to see you here?" Tsunade glared at him before gulping down her drink.

"Don't look at me like I had something to do with the events of this morning. I'm just as surprised as you are. The only reason I came was to warn you."

"About what?"

The toad sage's mischievous grin shifted and he went dead serious. "Orochimaru's got a chaos emerald. Thought you'd like to know."

"Any idea about his whereabouts?"

"No leads. Looks like he's staying mobile. I did find another emerald of my own, though. That leaves five of them unaccounted for. There's a high chance for a third party to stumble across one of them."

"What do you plan on doing with it?" Tsunade asked.

"I'm going to use it to help train Naruto."

"That's a dangerous move. You'll be putting him right in Orochimaru's line of sight."

"But it will also distract him from Konoha a little. Besides, I don't mind pitting my apprentice against our old comrade. When the time is right, I'm confident that Naruto can beat him."

"Do you have any idea what he plans to do with them?"

"Ask our visitors from Mobius," Jiraiya said. "They would know more about this than me. They could be very useful to us. You should keep them around. Make them feel at home in Konoha. Show them the ropes. Don't let a bad first impression deter you from taking advantage of the strength these new friends of ours have to offer."

"You think they're that strong?"

Jiraiya nodded. "Just about everyone felt that echidna's punches today. You can tell that the dark one is brimming with hidden powers. And did you see that girl with one of the Seven Swords of the Mist? It's not a simple feat to acquire one and use it properly."

"They're going to get into deep trouble carrying a piece of equipment like that around."

"Get them trained. We'll need their help. If they found their way here, more guests will be on their way and somebody's going to be looking for that big sword she acquired."

"This is just he beginning, isn't it?" Tsunade pressed her fingers into her aching forehead.

Jiraiya slammed his bottle on the table and cracked a lop sided grin. "Make sure you've got enough sake for the long haul. You're gonna need it."

* * *

"Damn $%#$ They %$%##% took my *$%#^& sword!" Suigetsu screamed in rage.

"Crikey! what's all that racket? You sound as cross as a frog in a sock." Marine the Raccoon emerged from the ship's cabin to see Suigetsu going into an epileptic fit and sinking his teeth into the side of the boat where he bit some sizable chunks off.

"Easy, mate. No need to go tearin' up the ship now. Not after all the trouble we went through to get this new one."

It was just a month ago that Marine and Suigetsu discovered one of the leftovers of Robotnik's robot naval fleet. They were going to hijack the ship anyway, but when Suigetsu learned that the captain of the ship's name was Captain Whiskers, he flew into a frenzy and savagely destroyed every sentient machine on board. Marine gave a tearful goodbye to her little dinghy and decided to name the new vessel the S.S. Super Marine, but Suigetsu objected seeing as how she hardly even did anything to take over the ship, so where did she get off naming it after herself. They eventually agreed on a name and dubbed the new grand vessel the Ocean Tornado. Withing weeks, it became the most feared pirate ship on the seas.

"I can't sense the presence of Kubikiri Houchi anymore," Suigetsu said when he cooled down a bit. "It's as if it just vanished off the face of the earth. Somebody's messing around with my sword. I just know it. Whoever theyy are, they're dead meat."

"Is that really so bad?" Marine asked. "You look like you can get along fine without any bleedin' weapon. Look at all the treasure we pillaged and ya did all that with your bare hands. Those other pirate ships didn't stand a chance against us. I didn't even have to lift a finger. We have so much gold," Marine opened up a pirate's chest and greedily sifted through piles of gold coins through her hands.

"I don't give a damn about gold!" Suigetsu grabbed the big chest of gold coins and tossed it into the ocean. "There's only one piece of treasure I'm after."

"Oh well, that gold was probably cursed anyway," Marine shrugged. "You always have to watch out for the coins that have all the skulls on them, mate."

"I'm hungry," Suigetsu said and jumped off the ship. Minutes later, the water ran red with blood swirling just below the surface. Another few seconds later, and the sea erupted with a great white shark flying out of the water and crashing onto the deck of the ship. Marine shrieked back before the shark could bite her arm off. Suigetsu soon resurfaced, his hands stained with shark blood.

The shark wildly flapped around on the deck snapping its jaws at whatever it could reach. Giving it an annoyed look, Suigetsu dealt a sharp blow to the head and the shark stopped moving instantly.

"We're having shark fin soup tonight…again," Suigetsu said.

"Hey, it beats the giant squid pie we had last time," Marine stuck her tongue out as she looked at the remnants of the pie she made. A live tentacle still tried to squirm out of the crust.

"That's not important now. I just found an important clue floating in the water," he held out a tarot card. It had the picture of a devil on it.

"That's not a good card to show off to anyone, mate," Marine warned. "You're dealing with some sinister signs there."

Suigetsu's sharp toothed grin returned. "On the contrary, this is the best sign I have ever seen. This tarot card has Kisame's scent on it. He's close. Very close. If I find him, that will bring me one step closer to achieving my destiny."

"Why don't you forget about your destiny, mate. You've been a real grouch about it, maybe you'd be happier letting it go and just getting yourself a new sword. It's not like there's a shortage of magic swords in the world. We'll find you a nice blacksmith."

"Hmph. A drifter like you could never understand the legacy of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. But maybe you've got a point. With the right blacksmith, I could build a new sword that could be just as powerful as Zabuza's original sword. And I know just the guy to do it. Remember that mechanic I told you about who promised to fix up my sword? It's about time we sought him out. Tails will build my new sword. It'll be better than the original."

"He's that good?"

Suigetsu laughed. "Are you kidding? This kid makes Tony Stark look like a caveman with a broken stick."

"Blimey, that is good. I'm learnin' all about machines myself. It'd be good to meet a real expert that could teach me a few things."

"Then set a course for the Mystic Ruins. That's where we'll find our blacksmith."

"There's…just one problem, mate." Marine said nervously, pushing her fingers together. "I have no idea where that is."

Suigetsu's grin turned nasty real fast. "You're sailing around the world trying to become Queen of the Pirates and you don't even know your own planet's geography?"

"I sail around the seas. Why should I know anything about land?"

Suigetsu slapped his forehead hard enough to make a splash in it. There was still a pack of sharks circling around the ship. He could've just thrown her overboard. She would probably just see it as an adventure. He had to admit that Marine was still useful to him. Her mechanical skills were good enough for her to manage the giant ship's entire engine room. Something Suigetsu couldn't do on his own so easily.

"Look, let's just head west. That direction sounds about as good as any."

Marine turned westward and gazed at the sunset dipping into the ocean. "Yes! Into the sunset and to the next epic adventure!"

"Do you have to say that about everything you do? Not everything is an adventure."

"This one will be. I got a feeling about it," Marine donned her pirate hat and ran to the top of the ship. She grabbed the wheel with one hand and unsheathed her cutlass and stabbed the air with the other. Epic pirate music was playing from somewhere. "Onward to the most epic insane adventure of our lives! Ever!"

Suigetsu stayed below at the bow and looked out into the thousands of miles of ocean, just thinking about all the monsters that could be hiding in the deep. There's was just one he particularly had in mind.

"Where are you, Kisame?"

* * *

Kisame emerged from the ocean onto the shores of South Island, carrying his detached arm on his shoulder. There by the shore he saw his severed arm, lying on the beach, getting picked apart by sea gulls. See that combined with the memory of a bratty half pint demon fox slicing his arm off and dropping him down made his blue face turned steaming red. In a fit of rage, he ripped his hatai-te off his head and stuffed into his mouth. He noisily chewed the metal apart and swallowed.

"Let go of my arm, you mangy buzzards!" Kisame bellowed. The gulls quickly scattered, leaving Kisame to reclaim his lost arm.

"Nothing left to do now but head back to the hideout and face the big boss," he sighed. "I'll have to ask Kakuzu to sow my arm back together again. Then, I'll return to retrieve Samehada."

As soon as Kisame stepped off the beach and reached the nearest highway, a lone car came speeding down the deserted road and screeched to a stop right in front of him. Kisame had no idea who it was that drove a sleek, shiny, flaming red sports car that would stop for him, but when he saw who the driver was, something forced him to smile again.

Itachi, his partner, sat in the driver's seat, leaning one arm casually over the car door. He didn't look at Kisame, but kept looking down the road, his Sharingan eyes concealed behind a pair of slick sunglasses.

"Get in, Kisame," Itachi ordered.

Kisame got in and tossed his arm in the back seat. When Kisame was settle in, Itachi sped off. The wind came blasting into their faces. Their hair went blowing in the wind. Kisame felt it was a nuisance, but Itachi seemed to enjoying it. At least as much as he enjoyed anything. Taking in a deep breath, Kisame sank into his seat and tried his best to forget about the day's ugly ordeals.

"This a real pimped out ride you got here, Itachi. What's the deal?"

"You will like this car very much, Kisame. It's called a Sting Ray," he said. "I grew tired of running and jumping to my every destination. This helps conserve my chakra."

Kisame chuckled. "I guess all this bouncing through the trees business has gotten a little old fashioned, hasn't it? Maybe it's about time we tried new things. Cool shades, by the way. When did you pick those up?"

"My eyesight is getting worse. They're too sensitive to light. These serve to protect my eyes."

"Good idea. You can't be too careful. Not when—" Kisame stopped mid-thought. Why was an almost blind man driving a car? "Er, Itachi, maybe I should drive. You don't see so well."

"Nonsense," Itachi insisted. "Only I may drive this car. It was difficult to acquire and it must stay in good condition. I am thinking of painting black flames in the side to make it look like an Ametarasu. What do you think of that, Kisame?"

"Should you really be thinking about that now?" Kisame asked, sounding annoyed. 'When are you going to get around to capturing the kitsune. He's your responsibility after all, and a troublesome one at that. With your abilities, you could end the whole mission with one look and be done with it."

"Be patient, Kisame. I have my own way of doing things."

"I suppose that's all you're gonna say, huh? You can't fool me that easily, Itachi. I know that you've got your own hidden agenda. The Leader won't like this one bit."

No matter what was said, Itachi never bothered to look at his partner. "And what are you going to do about it, Kisame? Tell on me?"

Kisame snorted. "Like I would do a thing like that. Of course, fighting you is also out of the question. Unlike some of the other members, I don't have any sophisticated ideas for changing the world, so I don't care what you do or why you do it. I'm not particularly loyal to the organization, so I'll let you play your little game for now. I'm sure it'll lead somewhere interesting."

"You'll see very soon. You know I am good at keeping things in control."

"Can't argue with that," Kisame thought. "Itachi knows his game. He's so mysterious that way. Stupid sexy Itachi and his sexy cool shades and his sexy car and all his sexiness. At least I'll always have my dead sexy grin."

"You're missing another tooth," Itachi said, pointing to an unsightly gap in Kisame's mouth.

"Yeah, I—" Kisame stopped and did a double take. "FUCK! Stop saying traumatic stuff like that so deadpan, Itachi. I don't believe this. My arm, my sword, now my tooth. This is an outrage!"

"Calm yourself, Kisame. You need to take a break. Just leave everything to me now."

"He bit me, Itachi. Me. I'm the shark and he took a bite out of me. Then he blasted me with lightning, sliced off my arm and then dropped an island on my head. To top it all off, he took my sword. I had that sword with me since I was eight years old after ripping it out of the stomach of a sea serpent to then tear open the stomach of another sea serpent. We've never been apart!"

"But even when you're apart, you always know where it is, don't you?" Itachi reminded him.

Kisame nodded. "Yeah. That I do."

"So now we know the location of Tails' secret workshop. In a few days, we strike."

* * *

It was hot in the desert. Hellishly hot. In the arid climate of Wind Country, at the windswept outskirts of Sunagakure, the sun shone down upon the world without mercy. Naruto stood in the middle of the baking desert under an orange sun, feeling the hot blasts of wind against his face, he concentrated on gathering more Fuuton chakra into his body. Almost all the villagers in Suna were masters of the wind element and Naruto came to learn from them all. Today, he sought out Temari's advice. From what Naruto remembered of her, she was the deadliest blaster he had ever seen. No fancy tricks. She just straight up blasted the crap out of her enemies, sometimes blowing away an entire forest if she needed. More than any other skill, Naruto was eager to learn how to master this power.

Except he had no intention of wielding a fan for a weapon.

"I don't care how powerful you say this next jutsu is. There's no way I can go into battle waving around a fan," Naruto complained. "You might as well be asking me to wear a dress. That weapon is for girls."

"You'll do what I tell you to do," Temari yelled. To say she lost her patience with Naruto would be wrong. She never had any to begin with. She initially refused to work with Naruto altogether, but one look from Gaara and she changed her mind. "As long as you're in Suna, we are your masters. If you don't want to learn fan jutsus, then fine. It's your loss, but will you please put a shirt on?"

"No way! It's a billion degrees out here in this desert!" Naruto had given up on wearing shirts as long as he had to stay in the desert. The heat was just too much. Even the howling winds only managed to slam the heat in his face. If the beads of sweat that rolled down his sculpted abs was too distracting for Temari, well, that was her problem.

"I don't need to see your bare sweaty chest. We're doing serious work here."

"Don't like it? Maybe you'd prefer this," Naruto said and activated a henge jutsu. Naruto disappeared in the smoke and was replaced with Shikamaru, also bare chested. Not wearing anything, actually. Only a thin veil of mist managed to cover his—

"Change back, Naruto! Now!" Temari's face flushed red. She gripped her fan so tight that the metal crunched beneath her fingers.

"You don't like this look?" Naruto asked with a flawless imitation of Shikamaru's bored sounding voice. "Maybe if I let my hair down a little…"

It was at that moment that Jiraiya made his entrance.

"Excuse me. I was wondering of you could help me find Naruto…" Jiraiya stopped and stood there stunned for about a minute. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I guess I came at a bad time. Please proceed with whatever it was you two were doing. If you could just point me in Naruto's direction…"

"It's me Ero-sennin!" Naruto reverted back to his true form.

"I should've guessed. Do you have a few minutes? I want to talk to you."

"Go ahead. I'm done training with this brat," Temari stormed off.

"You're getting along with everyone, I see," Jiraiya remarked dryly.

"They're an uptight bunch," Naruto said. "You get sand in your crack so easily down here. It just makes everyone miserable."

"Even so, this is the best place to go to master your main element. I hope you've gotten stronger over these past few months. Did Gaara let you look at the hidden scroll of Fuuton jutsus?"

"Yeah, I looked over the rag a couple of times. It taught me tons of good techniques. Wanna see?"

Without any warning at all, Naruto concentrated a large pool of chakra around himself and released it in the form of multiple blades of wind, directed at Jiraiya. No time to dodge, he ducked his head and fully encased himself in his needle hair, forming an impenetrable sphere. Invisible blades of air slashed against the chakra enhanced quills and blasted the ball across the desert sands.

"The Hell was that for?" Jiraiya demanded. "Brazenly attacking your sensei like that. You will…what are you laughing at?" Naruto was clutching his stomach and almost fell over laughing his ass off.

"Try painting your hair blue, Ero-sennin. You looked like Sonic the Hedgehog with that technique."

"Don't go mocking one of my most reliable techniques," Jiraiaya stood up, brushing the dust and sand off his clothes. "I spent some time in my travels studying hedgehogs. Very resilient creatures, those guys. Speaking of which, I think we just got a little closer to finding our missing blue hedgehog."

"Is that what you came to talk about?" Naruto asked, straightening up and looking serious again.

"Yeah. Actually, I got a lot of things to tell you. First things first. Let's get the bad news out of the way. Ichiraku Ramen was destroyed today. The whole store's gone."

Silence filled the air. Even with the sun blazing in the sky, everything looked a little darker and bleaker. The desert winds suddenly felt a lot colder. Naruto lost the strength to stand, feeling as if he could sink into the sand. He turned his face away and rubbed a tear out of his eye. "I'm not gonna cry. Not..gonna..cry…"

"Sorry if I was a little blunt, but they only closed down temporarily. They're gonna build a new place. Make it nice and bigger."

Naruto suddenly stood back up. "It doesn't matter. None of our enemies had the nerve to strike us on sacred ground like that. Who were the assholes that did this?"

"I was getting to that. We received some unexpected visitors today from the world of Mobius. These three Mobians I guess you call them, fell out of the sky from some time space jutsu. A real bunch of troublemakers, those guys."

"What were their names?" Naruto asked in a sudden rush.

"Hmm…I don't really remember. Chuckles or something like that…"

"What kind of species were they?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "I have no idea. This is the first time I've ever seen live Mobians before. They were nothing like any animals I've ever seen, I'll tell you that."

"What colors were they?"

"Ah, now that I remember. The girl was all pink. There was a red guy, and a black one...with red streaks if that helps."

Naruto looked disappointed. "You didn't see a fox with two tails with them by any chance, did you? That should've been easy to spot."

"Oh, you mean Tails? No, he wasn't there, but they did mention him. Turns out he was the brains behind sending those three here. They told me that he sent them here, but he couldn't come himself."

Naruto frowned. "Why didn't he come?"

"He created the portal that brought them here, but he chose to stay behind to keep watch on the Akatsuki."

"He stayed behind to fight Akatsuki?" Naruto shouted ands threw his arms up in the air. "What an idiot!"

"Take it easy," Jiriaya said softly. "Damn your mood changes fast. There's something wrong when a grumpy old guy like me needs to tell you to chill out. At least he's got Hinata to look after him."

"Oh, that makes me feel a lot better. What the hell does she think she's doing by staying behind?"

"She's probably just thinking about you," Jiraiya said. "She knows the little fox means a lot to you, so she decided to stay close to Tails to protect him."

"They didn't need to do that. Everything would be perfect if they came back so we could be together again."

"Would it? If Tails did come here, you can be sure the Akatsuki would be close behind. Their presence will make things worse for everyone. Orochimaru might do something desperate and Sonic could be killed. Not to mention that they would be leaving Mobius defenseless. When Sonic was captured by Orochimaru, it left a huge hole that needed to be filled. People don't react well when their greatest hero just disappears right off the map. We've suffered that kind of problem ourselves…onthe day you were born, and we're still recovering from it. Somebody had to step up and fill Sonic's shoes. Sure, there might be a lot of strong candidates out there, but Tails is Sonic's only true successor, from what I hear. I'll bet Tails was dying to come back, but he made a choice."

"I miss him, Ero-sennin," Naruto said, quieting down. "You don't know how frustrating this feels not knowing what's going on with him. It's making me crazy. I was gonna bring him back home with me after the mission was over. I would've kept him safe from everything."

"Maybe safety isn't the most important thing on his mind right now," Jiraiya said. "It's certainly not something any great ninja should be thinking about for himself. Choosing to stand your ground against the enemy to protect your home world, even if you have to do it alone is a tough choice to make. It's the kind of choice that separates the cute little sidekicks from the legendary heroes. You should admire your little brother for doing that. He must be a really brave kid."

"Yeah, he is, but I'm still gonna bash his fuzzy head in the second I see him," Naruto punched his fist into the palm of his hand.

Jiraiya chuckled. "Do as you like, just don't hurt the poor boy too badly. If he's as good as you say, I would very much like the chance to train him a little."

Naruto imagined just how that scene would turn out. Ero-sennin training Tails. He pictured Tails with a big stupid grin on his face and cheeks all rosy, sneaking around the women's bathhouse, blood trickling down his nose as he tries to make a grab for a big ripe pair of soft, boobies. Damn. Now it was stuck there.

Naruto shook his head, trying to dispel the image. "No. He's perverted enough already. He doesn't need your help."

"But I could use someone to help me with my research. Besides, it'd be nice to train someone who's not a complete simpleton for a change…" Jiraiya's voice trailed off when he saw Naruto's angry glare. "Don't give me that look. You turned out fine. This time, I got something that really give you strength." Out of his vest, he produced a glittering yellow chaos emerald. "I feel that this is your kind of color."

"You found another chaos emerald? How did you—?"

"I stepped through a giant ring. It took me to another dimension…a horrible, twisted dimension," Jiraiya's eyes grew wide and cast a ghoulish expression on his face. "There I am, stuck rolling down the whole place like a ball. There's no up and down in that world and the directions reverse at random. Hell, reality reverses itself at random. I 'm not ashamed to say it. I was screaming the whole time. At first, I thought I was drowning at the bottom of the ocean and all of a sudden I'm falling out of the sky filled with birds. The only way out was by touching the emerald and I couldn't even do that without having to roll around through this crystal passageway and break through this wall of gemstones. Only by touching the chaos emerald was I able to escape with my sanity intact."

"Cool," Naruto breathed, eyes huge. "You have to take me to one of these places next time."

"May I never set foot in such a place again," Jiraiya said adamantly. "I like being in worlds run by logic. Now it would be a completely different story if there was a dimension that was inhabited only by females and they were all—"

"Enough! I don't wanna hear it," Naruto covered his ears. "I guess I'll just have to find my own giant ring, then."

"I wouldn't recommend it. You step into those giant rings, there's no way of telling what kind of plane you'll land on. Before you go searching for anymore of these rocks, I want you to study that one. See if you can unlock the secrets of its chakra."

"What do you think I'll find?"

"If my hypothesis is correct, these chaos emeralds are massive storehouses of natural energy. The perfect tool for Senjutsu training."

Naruto's stared at him blankly. That lost look on his face told Jiraiya that he never heard of Senjutsu.

"I didn't go over this with you yet?" Jiraiya asked in surprise. "All right. Let's see if we can figure this out. In addition to the energy that flows inside your body and spirit, which you use to mold your chakra, there is also the energy that exists in nature. Senjutsu is the advanced art of molding that natural energy. A mortal being can only draw on the natural energy of his immediate surroundings to the extant of his abilities. If you have a chaos emerald, that changes things. They're receptacles that hold all the natural energy flowing throughout reality. Unlocking the power of a chaos emerald allows you to transcend time and space and draw upon the infinite wellsprings of energy of the cosmos. The more you open your mind, the more the possibilities become endless. I believe that this is what this "Super Sonic" transformation is all about. Now us humans seem to have detached ourselves a little bit too much from nature, so it's no surprise that we've only heard of folks in the animal kingdom doing this, but it shouldn't be impossible for us. Even one emerald can allow enormous benefits. Somebody who has all seven emeralds and knows how to use them can connect himself to all the energy in the universe."

"I fought Super Sonic when I turned into Four Tails Kyuubi," Naruto said. "He wasn't any stronger than me."

"He's young," Jiraiya said. "Why should we assume his chaos powers have fully matured? And Demon energy has a different set of rules altogether. While mastery of natural energy grants you inner peace and harmony, demon energy will make you…well, you would know about that better than me."

"What happens if you use both?"

"I wouldn't recommend it to somebody unless he had complete control of both powers. Otherwise, things could get very messy, but I'm not talking about this stuff as an expert. See what happens for yourself," Jiraiya turned his back and started walking away. "I'll come back in a couple of days to see how things go."

"That's it? That's all you're going to teach me?"

"Chaos emeralds are chaotic in nature. They work by breaking all the rules. To discover its gifts, you must approach it with an empty mind. Since there's no real thinking involved, this should be easy for you."

"What are you going to be doing?"

"I'll keep my eyes open for Orochimaru's base, but meanwhile I'll be be hunting down more information on Akatsuki. Their absence left me a good opening. The trail of information I gathered leads me the Hidden Rain Village. Not exactly the most peaceful of places. As for Orochimaru, I'm leaving him to you. As long as you hold on to that emerald, it will help bring him out into the open. I'm using you as bait to draw out Orochimaru's forces. Whatever direction he strikes from, you'll be there to see it. You okay with that?"

Naruto nodded. "Fine. Let's just hope that Sonic can hold out in Orochimaru's dungeon a little bit longer. That place is a real shithole."

Jiraiya smiled and turned away, and vanished into the sand swept winds. Naruto stood there alone, left to contemplate the mystical emerald and the lights that swirled around inside like solar flares exploding in their own universe.

* * *

Sonic never felt so good. Nowhere near Orochimaru's shithole of a dungeon, he was back home in his apartment in Station Square in bed, having the best sleep of his life.

There was a quick rapping on his bedroom on his door. Tails barged right on in.

"Good Morning, Sonic!" Tails' happy voice sounded as bright as the morning sun. He hopped over to the window and pulled up the shades, letting a shimmering beam of sunlight come streaming in. Sonic didn't shield his eyes as he normally did. Today, the sunny day was giving off great vibes. With a grin he couldn't wipe off his own face, he jumped put of his racecar bed and stuck his face out the window to sniff the morning air. The birds sang in the trees. The spring flowers were in bloom. He could've sworn the sun was smiling at him. Sonic never felt so light on his feet.

"Can't wait for my run today," Sonic slipped on his shoes. His gaze went down to admire hisfavorite possession in the world. Somebody went through the trouble of shining them to perfection. When he stepped into the light, he saw that were shined to a ruby red gleam and his gold buckles glittered with a sparkling luster.

"Today is gonna be a great day today, isn't it?"

Tails started to tug at his arm. "Let's go, Sonic, I can't wait to show you my newest invention."

"One sec, little bro. Just gotta do a quick lookout for Amy."

"Don't worry about her," Tails said. "She's on vacation at a fortuneteller's convention in the Arabian Desert or something. She'll be gone all month."

Sonic stood breathless. "Wow! A whole month of not being chased by Amy. Any other good news for me?"

"Dr. Robotnik's getting his anal sphincterotomy, so I don't think he'll be doing anything evil for awhile," Tails added.

"His what?"

"Butt surgery," Tails explained. "Pretty painful stuff."

"So what you're saying is that I've got no worries at all?" Sonic said. "All right, my brainy bro. What's this new invention of yours?"

"You're gonna love it this time. I promise!" Tails ran out and returned in a few seconds wheeling the most ridiculous contraption Sonic had ever laid eyes on.

Sonic raised an eye ridge. "So what does this one do?" Sonic tried to hide the skepticism in his voice. As big a genius as he was, Tails had invented some real clunkers in the past.

"It's the biggest scientific breakthrough of the century. With this invention, I can turn pure chaos energy into chilidogs," Tails said proudly.

Sonic blinked. Biggest scientific breakthrough indeed. "It's been forever since I ate a chilidog. You sure this thing will work? That gizmo looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss novel."

"Dr. Seuss didn't write any novels, Sonic," Tails said flatly.

"Oh yeah? Green Eggs and Ham was a long-ass book. I couldn't get past the first few pages. They were so wordy. Really slow pace, if you ask me."

"Try Fox in Socks. That book is genius," Tails said.

"Yeah...so how does this work?"

"Allow me to explain," Tails pulled a chalkboard out of nowhere that had a lot of complicated equations wriiten on it. "It's a lot easier to turn matter into energy than it is to turn energy into matter. That's the hardest part about making chilidogs. It requires a ton of energy. E = mc2 gives us the equivalence, with E as energy in joules, m as mass in kilograms, and c as the speed of light in meters per second. That's roughly 300,000,000. This gives us about 9.0 * 10^16 joules per kilogram, which is in scientific terms a lot of energy. This invention is made to contain all that energy."

"Tails, you had me at chilidogs. What say we test this things out? What's the worst that can happen? We blow up the universe?"

"Yeah. Something like that," Tails said as innocently as he could.

"Eh, infinite supply of chilidogs, right? It's gotta be worth it," Sonic said and turned on the machine.

From one end, the machine lit up as it drew in pure chaos energy. Out of the other end came a big juicy hot dog topped with a generous slathering of steaming chili. Sonic tossed it in his mpouht and swallowed the whole thing in one gulp.

"Mmmmm…I could eat a million more." He smacked his lips and reached for another.

"Squeak! Squeak!" went the chilidog as Sonic grabbed it.

Sonic shook his head. "No way that chilidog just made a noise."

Sonic opened wide and was about to bite it again when he heard another noise. Sonic took a closer look at the chili dog in his hand. He closed his eyes and opened them again. The chilidog in hand was now gray and furry with a long tail and it was squirming and kicking around, trying to break free.

"Hey, you're not a chilidog. You're a rat. Wait a tick…" Suddenly, everything was different for Sonic. Tails was gone. The sun was gone. Sonic was alone now in a dank, dark prison cell, decorated with skeletons chained to the wall. There was no aroma of blooming flowers, but the stench of decayed flesh. Instead of birds chirping outside, there were zombies shuffling down the corridors, moaning in their deathless hunger. His shoes were covered with grime and his socks were half eaten by rats. The big fat chilidog in his hand was now a big fat squealing rat.

Sonic patted his rumbling stomach. "Ugh…it's been so long since I ate anything that I'm dreaming. Close call, squeaky buddy," he said to the rat. "I was about to eat you. Don't worry. I'm still not hungry enough to eat a rat. Man, how badly would that suck?"

Without warning, a huge python sprang from the darkness and snatched the rat in its mouth. Sonic yelped and fell back. He watched wide eyes as the rat squealed one last time before it disappeared down the snake's throat. With a satisfied flick of the tongue, the snake calmly slithered back to its nest.

Sonic groaned and rolled his eyes. "More snakes? Okay, I get it. Orochimaru has a snake motif. He has to have snakes everywhere." The snake hissed at him menacingly at the mention of its master's name.

"What's that?" Sonic asked. "You don't like him, either? Judging by how fast you ate your meal, I'm guessing he doesn't take very good care of you guys, does he?"

The snake motioned with its head that Sonic took for an agreeable nod, then slithered away when the presence of a flickering torch light neared the cell. Sonic turned to see Kabuto with a ring of jingling keys in his hand.

"Talking to someone, Sonic?" Kabuto asked.

"Down here they call me Sssssonic," he stuck his tongue out like a snake. "And I'm fassssster than sssssound."

"Come with me," he said as he unlocked him from his cage.

"Kabuto, right? Where am I again? Where's Tails' chilidog machine?"

"A chilidog machine? I'm afraid you've been dreaming, Sonic. You'll find none of those things here. You're going to pay a visit to Orochimaru-sama, remember?"

"Should've known it was all just a dream. My first clue should've been the fact that I wasn't wearing any pants…not that I ever wear pants, but that's beside the point."

Kabuto ignored him and for the next ten minutes, Sonic walked silently through the dank halls of the dungeon very slowly, the one activity on land that he hated the most. A pair of thick iron doors led the way to the snake lord's inner chamber. Going through the doors was like stepping through time. They left the tunnels behind and entered a gigantic spherical chamber, brightly lit with the flashing lights of and glowing computer monitors.

"What is this place?

"We're in Orochimaru-sama's secret laboratory," Kabuto said. "Most of it is technology we stole from various facilities on Mobius. He built it with the sole purpose of studying chaos energy."

"Welcome, Sonic the Hedgehog," Orochimaru's creepy voice echoed across the room. Then, the chair in the center of the lab swiveled around and the snake master himself appeared before him. Kabuto brought Sonic to a circular device that once shackled in, pulled his arms and legs wide apart.

"How are you feeling today, Sonic?" Orochimaru asked in a pleasant tone.

"Like a Da Vinci painting."

"Ah, the Vitruvian Man," Orochimaru gave a knowing smile. "Good. I just needed to see if you could fit in that thing. And how are you enjoying the stay in my hidden fortress?"

"What can I say? The background music is kinda nice. Really gives the place the right kind of ambience. Is that you on the pipe organ? You're very good."

"I prefer the music of bloodcurdling screams," Orochimaru said as he spat his katana from his mouth. Sonic tried to jerk away as the cold slime drenched blade came to sit against his neck. "Relax. I'm not going to kill you. I just want to show you something. Take a close look." The metal glowed a deep blue sapphire. The hilt was encrusted with blue crystals. A careful study revealed that those gems were shards from a chaos emerald. "That's right, hedgehog. I found one of the lost chaos emeralds. It goes so well with my Kusunagi sword. I'm glad I found the blue one. I like that color, but I get bored if I have only one color for too long. Where are the other six?"

"I dunno," Sonic said lazily. "I don't keep track of 'em when they split."

"I believe you," said Orochimaru. "You're really not lying. That disgusts me even more. Even if you could find all the emeralds, you could care less about them."

"Hey, the Super Sonic transformation gets old after awhile. I don't know why you want the rocks so badly...unless it's to taste the super sour radioactive fruit juice that lies at the center of every emerald."

"How little you know. For generations, we shinobi have taught ourselves techniques that could make us stronger and faster. With little effort, you surpass us all. You make us look bad. And the worst part of it, is that your powers reveal only a tiny fraction of what the power of Chaos can truly do."

"You're right. Did you know that you could turn chaos energy into chilidogs. I wish I thought of that."

Orochimaru's pupils narrowed to hair thin slits. "You have the powers of a god and that's all you can think about?"

"A wise man once said, "perfection and power are overrated. It is wise to choose chilidogs." At least I think that's what he said."

The snake sannin held back the urge to slice the hedgehog straight down the middle. "You're a joke, you know that? The only reason you ever managed to become a successful hero is because your enemies were even bigger jokes. Now, things are finally going to get serious. I'm going to show you just how much untapped potential chaos energy really has. The machine you're strapped to will make you the mystical conduit that will siphon in the chaos energy out there, teleporting the rest of the chaos emeralds to me."

"Sounds like you've really though this through," Sonic said, visibly impressed.

"Indeed I have. Ever since I first learned about these magical gems. Then, I discovered you. It boggled my mind and it disgusted me at the same time. What gives you the right to keep that power for yourself? Who chose you to be the master of the chaos emeralds? Why should you be the only one privileged to use it?"

Sonic only half listened to the crazy snake lord's ranting. His attention was fixed on finding a way to break free, but he had to say something. "Nobody. It just happened. That's Chaos for ya."

"Well, it's about to happen again. This time, for everyone. You've helped me in a way. By removing the chaos emeralds from their homeworld and bringing them here, I can see how they work without having to worry about the Master Emerald's dampening effects. At first I thought I could destroy it, but no matter how many times it gets shattered, the Master Emerald will always reform. It's completely indestructible. Luckily, now that I've separated the seven servers from their masters, I can demonstrate the pure uninhibited powers of the chaos emeralds."

"Okay, I'll bite. How're you gonna pull that off?"

"I invested a lot of time and energy into understanding the kind of technology that can combine with my own mastery of ninjutsu to manipulate chaos energy. Sailing in orbit over the planet right now are seven satellites that I have designed to send chakra signals to every corner of the globe. They will serve to transmit the chaos energy and amplify it in any manner that I choose."

"Then what?"

"First things first. After I have all the chaos emeralds, I'm going to utterly annihilate Konoha," Orochimaru made a fist, imagining himself holding the village in the palm of his hand and crushing it. "I'll incinerate the village with such tremendous force that not a single blade of grass will grow again for another ten thousand years."

Sonic was no longer grinning. "That's awfully petty of you, Oro."

"I have no problem acting on my instincts and obliterating the people I hate. It's only natural. Once my personal vendetta is finished, I'll move on to higher things and give the rest of the world the gift of all the chaos energy anyone could have ever wanted."

"It'll never work," Sonic said. "Normal people don't have the will to handle that kind of energy. Half the people on this planet will die."

Orochimaru just laughed. "Good. I wouldn't have it any other way. Let them drop dead like the worthless insects they are. I have no interest in helping the weak willed. My new world is for the strong. Of course, it will be difficult for the strong ones, too. Half of the surviving population will have their genetic makeup so radically altered that they'll spawn a race of mutants. Seventy percent of those monsters will die slow agonizing deaths as their bodies reject the onslaught of chaos energy, causing their cells to decay. The ones who are spared from the mutations will get the pleasure of having unlimited access to chaos energy. Imagine a world where the average human will be hundreds of times more powerful than any Kage in history. They'll be super strong, super fast, super intelligent. They'll have an infinite chakra capacity. I'll be able to create jutsus such that have never been imagined before. And everyone will be immortal. It will be the fastest leap in evolution the universe has ever seen."

"You're insane," That was all Sonic could say. "In. Sane. Totally, completely, certifiably insane. Insane in the membrane. No, insane way past the membrane."

"Insane, am I?" Orochimaru chuckled lightly. "Let me tell you a story about someone else you might call insane. A long time ago, the legendary Rikudo Sannin, the Sage of the Six Paths brought ninjutsu into the world, changing it forever. Today, I will bring the power of Chaos into the world and usher in a new era. The day will come when they will know me Orochimaru, the Sage of the Seven Paths."

"I'll just say it again. You're insane. That's it. You're insane enough to try to make yourself into a god? I've heard it before."

Orochimaru shut his eyes tight, looking deep in thought. "No. I know that I am a snake. I can build the wings that will take me to Heaven, but I know that I will always be tied to the earth. I don't want to join the gods. I want to challenge them. There are those planning right now to ascend to godhood and want take over this world. I know what Akatsuki is planning and someone needs to stop them. Like Rikodu Sannin, I will banish the demons from this world. Mankind needs the edge to combat the demons that will soon be unleashed into the world and I am the one who will give it to them. I will give the world the freedom it desires. Oh, and of course I'll come back to Mobius and do the same thing there, and move on the rest of the universe until I've reshaped all of creation. It will be the end and the beginning of all things."

Sonic looked Orochimaru squarely in the eye. "It won't work. Just because you've spent a long time studying the chaos emeralds doesn't mean you know how they really work. Chaos is enriched by the power of the heart. If you don't have that, then nothing's gonna go."

"Foolish blue hedgehog. What do you know about the heart? If there's one power that I hold over everyone here in the Sound Village, it's that I know what lies in the deepest corners of their hearts and I can bring that to the surface. If you would stop running off all the time, acting like you don't give a damn about anything and took a minute to look into the hearts of the people you protect, you would see that they're tired of having a hero fight their fights for them. What they really want is the strength to fight their own fights."

"You don't get it. The people need me. I'm the one who's got to save 'em."

"Mankind ill needs a savior such as you," said the sannin. You're afraid of what will happen after that. You believe that once humanity has the same powers as you, they will use it for evil."

"They don't need all that power," Sonic said. "There's nothing wrong with living a normal life and looking up to a hero to protect you. Some people care more about peace and love than power. They're the kinds of people I fight for in the first place."

"Tell that to your furry little sidekick. I wonder how he feels about this," Orochimaru said, taking out a little Tails plushy and waving it front of Sonic's face. "Just a little souvenir I picked up before leaving Mobius."

Sonic tensed up. This was exactly the one direction he didn't want this conversation going.

"He's out there somewhere getting more powerful everyday," said Orochimaru Aren't you curious to see what he'll do then? He's going to lead the demons that will devour every living soul in the universe. He's the one of the reasons I'm doing this. I will need the power of the chaos emeralds to kill him."

"That's bullshit! Tails wouldn't do a thing like that. Sure, maybe he's getting a little badass, but devour every living soul? Come on."

"It's destiny, Sonic," Orochimaru said, gently stroking the Tails plushy.

"Screw destiny! We've beat it before."

Orochimaru calmly shrugged. "I guess its useless to lecture you on blinding yourself to the truth. It's best to let you see for yourself. I think I'll let him live. Let's allow your friend to find his way and see where his search for power takes him. That way, you can watch at the rain of destruction he'll bring down. Then and only then, you will be faced with no choice, but to kill Tails yourself," Orochimaru finished and in one violent motion tore the Tails plushy to shreds, and scattered the pieces.

"You shut up about Tails! How about you let me loose and I'll kill you myself!" Sonic shouted and struggled to snap the restraints. He wanted so badly to bust right out and gouge the snake man's yellow eyes out his face.

"You'll kill me, boy? Very well. Here I stand," Orochimaru unlocked the shackles and Sonic tumbled to the floor. He didn't get up. "Can't do it, can you?"

Sonic breathed heavily. "I don't think I want to anymore. It would be so pathetic," he looked up and stared hard into the Orochimaru's yellow serpentine eyes. "I've never seen anyone who's more terrified of death than you."

Orochimaru snarled in rage. His katana flew and sank into Sonic's abdomen. Patterns of black flame snaked all over his body and burned into his skin. Sonic's bright green eyes closed and he slumped to the floor.

"Take him back to his cell and make sure he doesn't die," Orochimaru ordered to Kabuto. "We still need him."

"You seemed a little rushed there," Kabuto remarked. Was it a good idea to give him the cursed seal?"

"Of course it was!" Orochimaru snapped. "I meant for him to have it. Question my actions again and die."

Kabuto merely bowed his head and carried the hedgehog away out of the room.

"Don't despair just yet, Sonic. There will be plenty of time for that later. Yes, you will have all of eternity to wallow in despair, kukukuku." Orochimau laughed and continued to laugh as Sonic was dragged away back into the darkness. One last thought came to Sonic's mind before he slipped back into unconsciousness.

What was Tails doing?

* * *

If Sonic could see what Tails was doing right now, he would find him deep underground the Mystic Ruins in the caverns of his ever expanding workshop. There, Tails worked, bathed in the fiery glow of a blazing furnace and a pool of molten steel. He pulled out a brand new sword, red hot from the fires of the forge. He set the smelted blade on his anvil, and with a hammer in hand, he pounded on the sword. The ringing of steel and the flashing sparks accompanied every blow. Strands of bright white chakra swirled in the air around Tails as he worked. When he crafted the sword into its finals shape, he infused it with the chakra, giving the sword an unearthly shine. Under his goggles, Tails' eyes were beaming. Tails was in his best mood doing his favorite thing in the world. Kyuubi, though wasn't as happy and Tails tried to ignore the dark chakra gurgling inside him.

**"I don't get you, kit. You have a perfectly good set of claws and teeth, and yet you feel the need to waste time building all these weapons."**

"I'm making these for my friends," Tails said and continued pounding. "I can't be around all the time, so if they get attacked, they'll have that extra edge to defend themselves. Not everyone gets to host a demon, but maybe they can start getting a little taste of it by wielding weapons possessed by spirits."

**"I prefer being more direct, but your way is good, too. It's just another way to spread destruction across the world faster and leave the battlefield strewn with the bones of our enemies."**

"Aw, I don't know if I'm really into any of that. I just like making things for the art."

**"Whatever you say. Just try to get out a little. This forge is very stuffy. I need some air."**

"Sorry. It's just that I got excited ever since we brought back home Samehada," Tails nodded in the direction of an aquarium where Kisame's monster shark sword floated inside. "With its help, I discovered the secrets to creating intelligent weapons. Not since the Sword of Acorns has anyone on Mobius ever seen a real magic sword. We lost all their secrets."

"What's the point? So many pompous shinobi have wasted their lives looking for a way to create the perfect weapon that could slay me. Last thing I need is for someone to actually succeed in discovering that secret."

"You sound a lot like Sonic. He hates weapons, too. It's too bad because I think he'd be really good with a sword. I wanna make something real nice for him for when I see him again," Tails suddenly stopped his work and looked up in thought. "Hey, Kyuubi. Do you think Sonic will let me keep you when he comes back?"

**"Keep me?"** a low growl resounded throughout the cave** "Do I look like I'm your pet? You can't get rid of me even if you tried. But even if you could, it's not the hedgehog's choice to make. It's yours. You do what you want."**

"I know. It's just that I've known him for like my whole life, so it might be hard for him to get used to it. He used to think that me having two tails was a cool thing even when nobody else did, but I'm not sure if even he can handle that I'm a demon host. He gets very overprotective about stuff like that. I just hope he's cool with it, that's all."

**"If it comes to a fight, you can kill him easily, hehehehee." **That evil laugh came out that blended so well with the darkness. Tails still never got used to it, but he didn't want to even try answering that comment. He did his best to ignore it and focused on his work.

Once the sword was finished, Tails immersed the metal into a pool of water. The sword sank down and made a loud hissing sound as a cloud of hot steam filled the air. Tails loved that sound. It was his favorite part.

"Whew, I'm done," he said after unstrapping his goggles and tossing off his leather apron. "I worked forever on that one, too." He gave the newly crafted sword a few practice swings. He knew that the blade needed time to rest before it could be really be swung effectively, but it already showed great promise. "I've got more weapons than I know what to do with now. Hopefully, we'll be ready for anything Akatsuki can throw at us this time."

"No matter how good you are in the art of crafting arms, it won't do you a lick of good, if your friends don't have the skill to use them." Kyuubi warned. "Most of your friends aren't equipped to handle these things."

"Don't worry. I'm gonna get everybody ready. I feel like there's a war coming, and we're all gonna be ready for it."

* * *

Cream the Rabbit sat amidst the tall grass at the top of the hill under a palm tree, her thoughts drifting skywards. Grasshoppers buzzed in the grass around her. Butterflies fluttered from buttercup to buttercup. Cream sat still enough that a butterfly would land on herm and it would stay there until an overexcited Naruto Chao shot out and chased it down the field.

Down below, the other students of Green Hill Elementary went about their business to finsih their last days of school. Summer was coming soon and Cream couldn't wait. That meant more time to spend with Tails. If that fox would actually show his face every once in awhile. She hadn't seen him once since that day she gave him his headband, but when Tails promised he'd see her today, all that time seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye.

Tails was srill running late to meet Cream, having gotten lost in the high school section and found himself staying there a lot longer than he had planned. He snickered quietly to himself as he padded through the quad. "Man these girls in their school uniforms are hot." Normally, Tails hated being the shortest guy in a crowd, but here his small stature gave him the perfect vantage point to see up those tiny skirts. It took the distracted fox awhile to remember why he actually came here. He sighed and sped out with a reminder to return and spend more time here.

Tails climbed up the hill and saw Cream sitting there waiting for him, but she hadn't spotted him behind her yet. A smirk formed around his face as he crouched low in the grass, his tails flapped around anxiously. He could tell that Cream was getting bored and needed a little excitement. Why not get her with a surprise pounce attack? Tails kicked off with a burst of speed and lunged when something snatched him by the leg. Tails yelped as something pulled him into the air.

"Tails?" Cream turned around and saw Tails dangling upside down from a snare planted into the tree. "I'm so sorry, Tails. I never thought you'd get caught in it."

"Why is there a trap here at all?" the little fox haplessly swung back and forth trying to reach the rope. He had such a flustered distressed face that Cream couldn't help but giggle. The group of Naruto Chao emerged from their hding places and were grinning big enough to split their faces in half.

"You were the one that said I had to be on my guard at all times in case an enemy attacked, so the Naruto Chao helped build that snare," Cream said.

"This is really embarrassing," Tails groaned. "Can't believe I fell for this one."

"I'm really sorry, Tails. I'll come get you down."

"It's all right, Cream. I got it." With the swipe of a tail, he cut the rope and dropped to the ground. Cream ran to catch him, breaking his fall before he smashed his head into the ground.

"You've got to be more careful, Tails. What were you doing over there anyway?"

"I was just…" Tails' cheeks reddened. "I was just gonna give you a surprise hug. That's all."

"Oh, Tails. That's so sweet of you. I love hugging my friends!" Cream jumped into his arms and buried her face into his chest, and embraced him tightly. "And I love hugging you the most, Tails. No one's as cute and soft as you are."

"I'm really sorry about the trap thing," she apologized again. "You want some ice cream?"

Before Tails could say yes, a Hinata Chao fluttered down in front of Tails. With a pure angelic smile on the little chao's face, she placed a mint flavored ice cream cone into Tails' hand. He eagerly devoured it in a few bites. After spending all day in a fiery forge, he never felt so refreshed.

"Wow, we've got all kinds of chao now," Tails said, licking ice cream off his muzzle. "How come I don't see Cheese anywhere? You're never around without him."

"Cheese has been acting weird lately. He told me he was scared."

"What's he afraid of?"

"Of you."

"Me? Why would Cheese be afraid of me?"

"I don't know. He said it had something to do with some dark energy that surrounds you, but I don't know what he's talking about. I think Cheese is just being silly. Besides, the other Chao really like you."

"The Naruto Chao have a weird way of showing it." he turned back and saw that they were still laughing at him.

"It's not just you," Cream said. "They make trouble for anyone who comes near. I can't leave these chao alone for a second. They drive me crazy sometimes."

"Maybe they're just bored," Tails suggested. "We just need to direct their energy somewhere useful. I made ninja weapons for all the chao. They're custom made so that the chao can wield them even with their stubby little hands." When Tails unrolled his pack of mini kunai and shuriken, the chao attacked like a pack of piranhas and grabbed the weapons

"I think they like the idea," Cream said, watching the Naruto Chao try to kill each other. Hinata Chao picked up her weapons too, but didn't join in on the fighting. "Are you really going to send the chao into battle?"

"Why not? They're swift, they're silent, they hide easily, and you can't kill them," Tails pointed out. "Nobody will suspect them coming. It'll give us a great edge. All we have to do is give them a mission."

"What kind of mission?" Cream asked curiously.

"I got a good one," a sly grin tugged at the fox's lip. He opened up a kit filled wiht hi tech spy gear and summoned one of the chao over. "Hey, Naruto Chao. Go find some cute girls and take some videos and snap a few pictures. Make sure to get all kinds of angles, especially some nice up skirt angles. Don't forget to check them in the locker room. That's a prime location. Do not be seen." The gang of chao all nodded their heads in unison with mischeivous grins of their own and sped off lightning fast. "That'll keep them busy for awhile."

"Why would you want the chao to do all that?"

"It's ninja training. You have to be able to sneak into dangerous places without being seen."

"I hope this is a good idea."

"I have some weapons for you, too," Tails showed her a set of normal sized kunai and shuriken. "Whaddya say, Cream? Are you ready to start your ninja training?"

Cream's hand trembled as it reached for the weapons for the first time. "Yeah! I mean…I think so. I 'm a little nervous. Do you think I'll be good at it?"

"Cream, I'll think you'll be amazing at it." The way Tails' blue eyes shined when looked at her told her that he believed every word he said.

"We'll train together everyday and we'll cover everything," Tails smiled good naturedly and placed a kunai into her open palm. "Kakashi-sensei was really tough on me, but I'll make it fun."

Cream smiled at her best friend turned teacher. "I'll think you'll be a great sensei, Tails."

"Then let's begin," he took her hand and helped get her set up into her first stance. The kunai was heavier then she expected. "Try giving them a few throws. See how they feel."

The first kunai Cream threw stabbed Tails in the foot.

Tails fell down and let out a strangled groan, clutching his bleeding shoe. Cream immediately dropped her weapons and her hands flashed to her open mouth as her eyes widened in horror.

"Oh, my gosh! Tails! Your poor foot! I'm so sorry!" she jumped up and down hysterically.

"It's okay, Cream," Tails eventually got up and smiled as if nothing happened. "You'll get better. Let's just try that again."

* * *

**If you have not done so yet, please go take a look at the latest fanart that came out for this story. I'm sure the artists would appreciate your comments. Many thanks go out to Lycropath, Dev the Dog, and a Flameblaster for their work.**

**Next chapter is Chapter 20. A nice round number. I'll have to do something special for that. See ya then.**


	20. Death to the Future

**The Kitsune in the Leaves**

**Clever Phoenix:Thanks! Shadow's sarcasm is one of the best parts in writing this. I actually dislike sarcastic characters, but I like it when Shadow is funny, rather than all serious and angsty all the time.**

**Iluvtails:It's not so new anymore, but this is.**

**Salamander Hanzo:Hum? That could mean so many things.**

**Angelus–alvus: Thanks**

**Kage-Bijuu:Thnaks. The Naruto Chao will be going on more missions soon.**

**Kitsune-Super Fox:I promise you that there will not be any ItachixKisame stuff. Kisame just likes to have ridiculous thoughts sometimes.**

**Gameplayer:Thanks for the review. I never played Tails Adventure, but I'm not surprised he could act that way. There's just something about him.**

**Dragon Man 180:Naruto will not be getting the short end of the stick. He will be very powerful eventually. The NaruHina will happen at a very climactic part in the story. Although Hinata will get to do some fighting on her own this chapter.**

**Asher Tye: Have faith and you will be rewarded! I always figured that if your main hobby is building airplanes then you know how to work with metal. Working with Iron Age technology should be a breeze for Tails. I got the idea from his Blacksmith incarnation in Sonic and the Black Knight. As for Knuckles, love makes you do crazy things. Cultural considerations be damned. I imagine that Brock's meeting with Knuckles would go somewhere along the lines of him throwing a little red and white ball at him and ordering him to get in. Red would not take that very well.**

**The Black Phoenix Shoe:No plans yet for an Avatar fic, but it's always possible. It could be a cool story. I don't have any ideas yet for it. I'd love to hear them.**

**A Sonic and Naruto Fan:Longest review of all time! Ever! Thank you. I read a little bit about tarot cards, just enough to know what the symbols stand for. Reading someone's future with them is a lot more complicated. I listened to your critique. I think it's valid. It's good to have your opinion. I'm still a beginner at this, so I'm still trying to see what works. About Cream's aim, I know that she's the strongest character in some games, but I always got the impression that Cream is still just staring out. I don't think she'll be doing much combat in the story, anyway. She seems more like a medic type. At least that's what she does in Sonic Chronicles.**

**Zohaku: Sai has this thing for reading a lot, so it woud made sense to me that he would have the book on echidnas, especially since all the shinobi are trying to learn more about the chaos emeralds. I haven't really thought through the whole Master Emerald changing people that much. The Master Emerald can pretty much do anything.**

**Star's Dream:Thanks! I think ninja Cream will make for some interesting stuff.**

**Force Hog:Thanks so much! I haven't read any of those stories, but I imagine you're right. Sonic and Orochimaru do go great together. I don't think oro wasever prepared to dea lwiht a guy like Sonic!**

**Dev the Dog:I pictured Itachi with the Akatsuki cloak blowing in the winds, but the black suit would look cool, too. I do like the way you draw. It's very skillful. I would be honored of you did more.**

**Cap'n Chryssalid:Thank you for the kudos, Cap'n. I know you're the kind of guy who has high standards, so that means a lot.**

**bob:Samehada likes Tails' demon chakra, so it didn't shoot any spikes out, just like when Killer Bee took it.**

**Lycropath:Sonic does indeed have the Heaven's seal. My impression of the cursed seal is that it can create anything, so I'm definitely not limiting Sonic to hand wings. I was thinking about it for awhile who should train Amy, and I think I found the right person for her. Tails might be afraid that anything he builds for Naruto might end up breaking. Since the name "Izunagi" actually appears in the manga as a technique, I have to think about what that would mean here, since I would like to have that technique show up also. Maybe the sword has an important connection. Your artwork is fantastic! Great stuff, as always.**

**Morph:I gotta admit, I love doing shout outs and cameos. Suigetsu is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters. He' just awesome. I guess Shadow's jerkiness is pretty over the top. His character is being played for laughs.**

**Blue Mage Quartet:Yes, you suck at reviewing on time. :D If only there was a review the reviewers function…But still, you have yet to come close to my epic suckage at updating this stuff. Thank you reviewing. Thanks for alwaysreviewing. You're the only one who has reviewed every single chapter, and hasn't forgotten any of them. (You guys know who you are (¬_¬) Good luck with all your work, too.**

**Dan:You were right. New characters to appear this chapter! Life is great. Life is really great. Thanks for asking. It's one of the reasons why updating can be really hard. You're a NaruHina lover, too? Ah, isn't everybody? I promise it will happen.**

**Mymagpie: Thanks! I'm glad you're loving it. Tell your friend it's updated.**

**I hope I got everyone. And thank you all for waiting!**

**Chapter XX: Death to the Future**

**3000 years later**

Bolts of lightning flashed across a darkened sky. The billowing storm clouds stretched to cover the entire sphere of the planet. It blotted out the stars and obliterated the moonlight. For the generations that never saw the heavens, the blasts of energy that danced among the dead sky was the only light their world knew. From the scorched earth below, pillars of flame erupted from the depths, reaching miles high into the sky, spreading the ashes of the dead through the chocked air.

The vibrant Green Hill Zones were left lifeless, reduced to smoldering planes of molten stones, churning rock, sulfurous fumes, and searing heat. The once mighty metropolises that withstood so much in the past crumbled for good and left desolate. Within the silent steel graveyards, the abandoned rotting corpses were left to hang up high. What wasn't left for dead was used as raw materials for the demon lord's vile experiments.

It was in those days that the legendary Kyuubi no Youkai took over Mobius and subjected the planet to his bloody reign of terror, when Mobius became known across the galaxy as the most Godforsaken corner in the universe.

Blaze the Cat stood at the edge of the rocky precipice overlooking the Mystic Ruins. Silver the Hedgehog, her trusted warrior and psychic master stood by her side. The last of the living royals, she had been taught that it was her destiny to drive the unholy evil away from the land and restore life and civilization back to her dead world. In her quest, she mastered the power of flame to be her weapon against the demons, its light and warmth guiding her through the dark times.

Below them, a landscape littered with skulls that stretched endlessly into the bleak horizon, where the armies of Mobius banded together at the last stand for their final battle against the Kyuubi. He waited for them to charge in and open fire with everything they had. The barrage of lasers and missiles blasted the earth apart, sending skulls and bone dust everywhere. Nothing could even singe his fur.

Stepping out of the smoke, the Kyuubi grinned. Wisps of black nether energy seeped through his teeth. The demon opened his mouth wide and unleashed a devastating beam of black chakra that wiped everything in his path clean of all life. Whether man, Mobian, or machine, no being could stand up to his overwhelming chakra and survive. Giant red tails slammed against the ground, sending skulls flying through the air. One giant red tail slammed into the mountainside. The demon fox laughed. He swung one of his giant red tails and sent the next wave of troops sailing into the air.

Blaze turned her head away from the battle. She could see no more. "They never stood a chance. It's a hopeless war."

"They're doing their jobs," Silver said. "Now it's time to of ours. We can save them, Blaze. If we succeed on our mission, we can save everyone in this world. Are you ready for this?"

"Yes," an aura of flame ignited around her, her amber eyes glittered in the firelight. "Let's go."

Silver's hands hummed with psychic power and summoned a wave of solid energy that encased them both in a green barrier that rippled in the air. Shielded by their protective globe, they swooped down towards the battlefield, into the middle of heavy fire. Blaze's ears rang from the bombs bursting all around them.

And then there was the Kyuubi's roar. The sound of her fevered nightmares since she was a kitten. In front of the Kyuubi's fiery chakra, her own fire seemed like a dying candle compared to the kitsune demon's hellfire.

"Don't look at him, Blaze. Concentrate on our target," Silver pointed to the small hole in the battlefield just big enough for them both to fly through.

Blaze squeezed her companion's hand tight as the two of them descended down into the pit. The constant clanging of battle, the demon lord's laugh and the blood curling screams that followed faded into nothingness as they plummeted deeper. When they reached the bottom, all was silent save for the soft echo of droplets in the sewer.

Even with her enhanced feline senses, Blaze couldn't even see her hands in the pitch-blackness. Her hands lit up with flames, creating a torch light that flickered in the darkness. Silver's hands pulsed with psychic energy, adding a soft green glow to their light. It was enough to see ahead and to study the map that Silver unrolled, but Blaze was more focused on the surroundings. She already knew from the smell of the place what the sewer was filled with, but now she saw her royal purple coat stained with blood. It was blood that dripped from the ceiling and ran along the cold stone walls. Silver and Blaze's feet found themselves ankle deep in a slow moving river of blood with lumps of decaying entrails floating along. The overpowering smell was sick and rotted.

"Pay attention to the map, Blaze," Silver said. "We just have to follow this to get to the demon's laboratory. "It should be several hundred yards ahead."

"What a maze," Blaze said as they explored the tunnels. "Let's hope the lives that were spent just making this map were worth it."

"It will be," he said softly. "This has to work."

As they trudged their way through the dungeon, Blaze's ears picked up a faint bubbling commotion in the river. She shrugged her shoulder and moved on.

When the cat's back was turned, a skeletal hand slowly reached up from the river and seized Blaze by the ankle. Before she could scream, it dragged her down below the river, fully submerging her.

Silver spun around. Blaze was gone. Nothing but ripples on the blood surface.

"Blaze? Blaze?"

For one full agonizing minute, the surface of the river was deathly silent. Then, Blaze burst back to the surface, gasping for breath, but right behind her, a skeleton grabbed hold of her in its bony grip. The skeleton pulled her head back, exposing her neck. Blaze felt the nauseating, rotted breath of the creature's mouth hiss past her ear and invaded her nose. With a rusty jagged sword in its other hand, it reached towards her neck to slice her throat open. Blaze shut her eyes tight.

The sword touched the skin of her neck, but then only rattled in place, unable to budge. The skeleton wore a face that could have been passed for confusion. An invisible force locked the blade in place just before the sword's rusty edge could slice open her neck. Silver stood before them, a look of pained concentration on his face.

With Silver's telekinesis buying her time, the cat princess sent an elbow crashing through the skeleton's ribcage and slipped free from its grip, but not before delivering a kick that that sent it into the brick wall where it shattered to pieces.

The blood river churned as more skeletons emerged from their watery grave and shuffled forward. Blood poured freely from their hollow eye sockets and ran rivulets through their misshapen teeth. Deep red lights flickered within their cavernous eyes, burning with the hatred of all living things. Blaze's eyes shut themselves against the horrors in front of her as she retreated to into her mental realm, her own private plane of fire. Calling upon the elemental power of fire, her veins burned like molten lava. Her entire body exploded into a raging inferno. The river of blood began to boil. Silver ducked for cover and threw up his strongest force shield as just as Blaze unleashed her fireball at the undead horde. A hiss escaped the skeletons' mouths as they crumbled to blackened ash.

The fires died down as quickly as they came and Blaze nearly passed out.

Silver caught her and helped the cat to her feet. Her white fur was hot to the touch and filled with smoke.

"Blaze! Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine. Just please tell me we're almost there."

Silver shook his head slowly. "I wouldn't know. This map is ruined," he held up the parchment, soaked by blood and charred by fire.

"What do we do now?" Blaze dusted the ash off her regal cloak and looked ahead. The path forked off in at least nine different ways, up and down and in every direction.

"Guess we just pick one, but we must stick together and we have to run before more of the demon's minions appear." Silver said. Grabbing his queen's hand, he ran headlong into the downward tunnel.

After slogging through that maze of blood soaked tunnels, the two Freedom Fighters emerged into the depths of the demon lord's laboratory. A push of telekinetic force ripped the heavy steel doors from their hinges, releasing a cloud of dust. They squinted to see into the swirling dust storm where a glimpse of light lay beyond. Seven stones cut into hexagonal shapes stood arranged in a circle. While they didn't shine with the radiance and pure destructive light of the chaos emeralds, they resonated with their own smoldering power.

"The Time Stones," Silver said. "While the chaos emeralds can warp the very forces of nature and the energies of creation, only these stones can travel through time. Our key to traveling through time, we can go back in time and kill the Kyuubi before he has the chance to gain power and destroy the planet."

"Hehehe…" an evil laugh broke out in the lab.

Lying slumped in the corner of broken machinery, a black and blue hedgehog covered in glowing crystal glared at them with red eyes. The hedgehog had no mouth, yet he still seemed to sneer at them.

"So you made it, princess," the hedgehog's voice slithered into her head. "And you brought your psychic hedgedog along. I have been expecting this moment."

Blaze suddenly forgot how drained she was and entire body burst into red hot flames. The growl she gave the hedgehog sounded like the flickering flames around her. "I can't say the same for you, Mephiles! What are you doing here, villain?"

Mephiles lowered his head. "Do not waste your energy on me, Princess, for I am moments from death. You see, I believe I have met my match. That fiend stole most of my powers, left me for dead. Just when I thought I had him, too."

"It's more than you deserve," Blaze said. "I'm almost tempted to thank the demon. For once, something good came of it."

Mephiles laughed bitterly. "Good? Really? If a godlike being such as I has fallen before his might, what chance does a lowly mortal have against him?

"We're going back in time to set things right. To make sure that monster never comes to full power. Don't try to stop us."

"Why would I want to do that? I was thinking of helping you."

"You would help us?" Silver asked.

"I'm helping myself. My goals could never be accomplished as long as that demon walks this earth. If you do manage to change the past, I will live again. You will have to deal with me again when the timeline starts again. I can use my last remaining strength to seal the Time Stones into a temporal stasis, preventing Kyuubi from using them. You will be free to pursue your time travel unopposed."

"Blaze, you realize what this means. If we..."

"It'll be worth it," Blaze said. "To make the choice between Mephiles the Dark and Kyuubi no Youkai, Mephiles wins hands down. We're going to use those stones to travel back in time and we're going to kill that demon fox when he's at his weakest."

Silver nodded and gathered the stones together in one big pile and rested his hands on them.

The time stones spun around, becoming a blurring whirlwind of color. A shimmering sphere of molded space time collapsed from the continuum into existence.

"Go. Go now while you still can," Mephiles groaned one last time. The red light in his eyes faded away and body hardened and crumbled into a pile of crystalline dust. His remains scattered away, leaving no trace behind of the evil hedgehog spirit.

Silver and Blaze reached into the sphere. They were suddenly engulfed by a viscous fluid that sucked them in and launched them down a spiraling multicolored vortex whisking them down a spiraling tunnel that stretched into infinity.

* * *

**Present Day**

Suigetsu stepped out of the foggy gloom of the cave carrying a dozen treasure chests spilling over with gold coins and precious gems. He carefully maneuvered his way along the jagged, rocky terrain back to his pirate ship where his raccoon captain waited with hungry eyes.

As soon as he got back to the boat, he dumped everything down with a heavy grunt. Stretching his now free arms, Suigetsu grabbed his water bottle and chugged the whole thing dry.

"There. That's all the treasure they had in that cave. Every last copper piece," he said. Marine picked up the fattest looking gem she could find and examined it carefully, not noticing the look of exhaustion on Suigetsu's face. "And you could've helped carry something."

Marine looked up at him in shock. "Are you crazy? I can't go in that spooky lookin' cave. What about all the ghosts floating around all over? Look at it just ominously breathing mist out of its mouth like that. That's not normal mist, mate."

"Just because this island has a giant skull shaped mountain and has lots of mist doesn't mean there are ghosts. I know. I lived in the Mist Village. We never saw any ghosts."

"Maybe you scared them those teeth of yours. If I were a ghost, I wouldn't want to haunt your place. I'd go somewhere else to find my gold."

"What do you need all this gold for anyway?" Suigetsu murmured and went to refill his water bottle.

"Well why do you need to fight and kill people all the time?"

"That's easy," Suigetsu said, taking a drink from his bottle. "I'm the successor to the Devil of the Mist. I've got a big reputation to look after."

"So do I," Marine replied. "A pirate queen has got to have a boat full of treasure. Just what do you think the other pirate ships will do if they see me without any gold?"

"I don't know, but if they see you with all this gold, they'd probably just slit your throat and take it."

"Good thing I got you around then, eh, mate? I get lots of treasure. You get to beat up all the bad guys who try to take my treasure. It works out great for both of us."

Suigetsu snorted. "The enemies on this planet are worthless. I don't even need my zanbato to fight these guys. I could kill them with a spoon."

"No one wields a spoon the way you do," Marine said. "But you don't need just swords to make you happy. Gold can help build your fearsome reputation, too. Don't you know it's the most malleable metal around? Why, you could even get yourself a whole new set of gold teeth."

Suigetsu imagined what he would look like if all his teeth were made out of gold. The raccoon had a point. There was something to wading into bloody battle, wielding his sword, maybe a golden sword, sneering at his defeated enemies with a whole set of glittering golden teeth.

Just imagine what Kisame would say!

"Sounds tempting, but I'm fine with the ones I have," Suigetsu said. "Now let's get off this depressing rock already. I smell enemies approaching."

Out of the mists sailed a heavily armored warship with GUN's insignia branded on the side. After the rise in Akatsuki attacks, Central Command sent a red flag to every military post on Mobius. Within the bowels of the massive battleship, dozens of officers scurried through the bridge. The ship's admiral sat in his chair in a dimly lit war room filled with blinking monitors and radar scopes. He never expected to worry about the Akatsuki in the middle of the ocean, and he was considered better off for it. The mysterious ninja group held no interest for him. It was his hatred of pirates that brought the admiral to command the massive vessel.

Suddenly, the nerdy guy whose job it was to stare at blinking lights on a screen all day was running over to him. That was never a good sign.

"Admiral, sir," he spouted nervously. "We've spotted what appears to be an pirate ship sailing just off of the Dread Isle heading south."

"Pirates? In these waters?" the admiral growled. "Those lawless sea rats. I thought we routed them all out months ago. How can you be sure?"

"See that glowing red dot on the monitor? That means there are pirates out there."

"You sure they're not affiliated with Akatsuki?"

"No, sir."

"Then blast them out of the waters."

"Looks like another ship is approaching from the northwest," Suigetsu said.

"How can you tell?" Marine asked. "Our radars not picking up anything."

"That's because they're jamming the signal. Luckily, I can sense when things are moving in the water."

"They'd better dare not attack Captain Marine and her Ocean Tornado! What flag are they waving?"

"I'm not from around here. I don't know."

Marine looked through the telescope and spotted the hulking ship from the mists. "Those are no pirates. It's a GUN ship. Those bouncers of the sea. They hate honest working pirates like me."

"The Guardian Unit of Nations? That can't be so bad. It's not like they can just bomb the ship without any precedent."

Without warning, the ship's heavy caliber guns pointed towards the Ocean Tornado and opened fire. The white misty fog turned fiery red as bombs and cannons exploded over the water. Marine stood out in full view, brandishing her cutlass into the air with one hand and a pistol in the other.

"Yarr! They can shatter the heavens with thunder, but nothing's gonna bring me down!"

"Would you get down?" Suigetsu growled, pushing Marine's head down low. "This is exactly why it's so easy to kill you pirates. That's why we make fun of you back in the ninja villages."

"Funny. We say the exact same thing about ninjas back in the pirate villages," Marine replied.

The pirate ship shook from a violent tremor when one of the torpedoes smashed into the side of the ship.

"The hull's been breached! We're taking in water!" Marine cried.

"I can temporarily prevent the water from gushing in, but you'll have to fix it," Suigetsu said, then dove into the water and swam out of sight. Marine stood her ground alone as the warship moved in and threw their metal planks down. A team of soldiers ran down, armed with machine guns.

"Ah ha! Raiding my ship, eh? Go ahead and give me your best shot. Who wants to die first?" Their answer was the sound of a hundred guns cocking in unison all aimed at her. Marine's sword and pistol fell from her hands and clattered to the floor.

"Oh, bugger…"

Within minutes, Marine was bound in chains and hauled aboard the enemy ship. She glanced toward the ocean, scanning for any sign of Suigetsu. Nothing in the water but a few shark fins and her poor sinking ship.

"Look at this drab looking ship. Gray walls, gray uniforms," Marine said as she was brought to the bridge. "I can't believe you finally caught me, mates. Me. The infamous Captain Marine the Raccoon. So I guess it's another slap on the wrist and some jail time back on land, eh, mates?"

"The punishment for piracy is execution," The admiral said dully, not even bothering to look up from his paperwork. "Once we reach land, you are to be hanged by the neck until dead."

"A hanging? Blistering blue barnacles! What century did you sea lice crawl out of? What about me being a minor? We updated the pirate's Code a long time ago. You think everything else would be—"

"Gag her," the admiral commanded. "Annoying little sea urchin. The other one better not be this much trouble. Just kill him as soon as he resurfaces."

Suigetsu lifted his head above the water. GUN's battle ship was a massive hunk of metal, probably holding hundreds of men. No time to kill the sailors one by one. Not with his own ship sinking. He needed to take them all down with one singular blow. Suigetsu smiled to himself. He had the perfect technique to pull it off. One of the most forbidden techniques from the Kirigakure. One that only be performed in the ocean.

**"Suiton: Kanagawa Oki Nami Ura!" (Under a Wave Off Kanagawa)**

A towering tsunami wave rose up from the ocean. Suigetsu balanced himself on the crest of the wave. A murderous grin gleamed through his teeth as he raised the wave over two thousand feet into the sky and blotted out the sun. A dark shadow hovered over the ship and the naval officers ran in horror just as the wave curled over and smashed into the ship with all of nature's primal fury. For those unfortunate souls on deck, the waves pulverized into them into a fine paste and cast the survivors mercilessly into the sea. The giant waves demolished the mighty battle ship, reducing it to a mangled hunk of metal.

Suigetsu leapt onto the stern of the sinking ship. He had only minutes to get Marine before the whole ship would fully sink beneath the waves. Should be easy to find her, he figured. She'll be making a lot of noise.

The central war room inside was a wreck. The tsunami tore all their state of the art tracking equipment off the wall and turned it to flotsam floating in sea water. The remaining handful of soldiers kept their guns ready as they waded waist deep in sea water. They escorted the admiral and the captive Marine to the lifeboats.

"I left you alive on purpose," Suigetsu said. "I need that annoying raccoon to come with me and then I need to speak with you."

Marine groggily stood up and tried to find balance, smacking the water out of her ears. "Blimey! That technique was amazing, mate. Could've warned a bloke you were gonna do that, though."

"Kill the one with the freakish teeth," the admiral ordered coldly.

Freakish teeth?" Suigetsu snarled and charged the GUN admiral. Machine guns fired. Suigetsu flipped out of their path and landed on one of the men's heads. With a twist of his wrsit, he snapped the man's neck, then used the body as a meat shield against the oncoming bullets. When he heard the sound of empty cartridges, he chuckled and reached for his belt and pulled out a spoon. A blur of motion followed, and the guards lay dead before him a split second later. The mist assassin twirled his blood-drenched spoon between his fingers and cackled.

Suigetsu grabbed the admiral by the collar before he could run, pulling him up inches from his face. "So, what were you saying about freakish teeth, huh?"

Before the terrified admiral could say anything, Suigetsu banged his head against the wall. Many times. Blood splashed over Suigetsu's purple vest. Teeth rattled loose and plunked into the water. Marine winced to the point where she had to look away. When he was finally done, the admiral's face looked as red and as tenderized as raw steak. Half his teeth tumbled out of his blood soaked mouth.

"Whose teeth look freakish now, huh?" Suigetsu asked. The admiral tried to speak, but could only make an incoherent gargling sound.

"Start speaking clearly. I left you alive because I have a lot of questions for you. Show me the quickest route to get to the Mystic Ruins."

After a few moments where the admiral moaned out everything he knew about the Mystic Ruins and its most well known resident. Satisfied, Suigetsu relaxed his hold and shoved the man aside.

"At last. We know where we're going," he said to Marine. "When we return to the ship, you will set a course for the Mystic Ruins and head straight there. Shouldn't take us more than a day."

"Uh, that's gonna be a bit of a problem, mate," she shifted uncomfortably. "The engine's busted by the torpedoes. You'll have to use that big wavey thing again to get us moving."

Suigetsu grumbled. "Fine. We're close enough. The guy we're going to see should be able to fix the engine for us, too."

As they hopped back onto the Ocean Tornado, Marine frowned, looking at the remaining GUN seamen struggling in the water, crying out for help. "Hey, Suigetsu. There are a lot of survivors stuck in the water. Shouldn't we do something about them?"

Suigetsu flashed a devilish grin." Don't worry about them. It looks like all this commotion attracted all the hungry sharks in the area. Let's let them have some fun. Heheheh…"

"I've said it before. You're a scary guy, Suigie."

"And I'm about to get a lot scarier," Suigetsu said. "Now onward to the Mystic Ruins."

* * *

Lightning crashed all around the vast laboratory far below the Mystic Ruins. Tails stood in the center of it all, manning the control panel. A pair of goggles hid his eyes. Shining above him in all its glory was the Master Emerald. Dancing around the giant gem, the lightning brought out a brightness like the heart of a star. It radiated outward, bathing the chamber in an eerie green light. He barely noticed the heavy iron doors swishing open and Hinata walking in.

"Tails-kun, are you in here?" She found him immersed in his work. For all Hinata knew about these machines, Tails looked like he was mashing a whole bunch of buttons and pulling switches at random. Lines of equations and codes flashed across the huge computer screens at unreadable speeds.

"Hi, Hinata. You gotta wear goggles if you're coming in here," Tails said and tossed her a pair. "It can get pretty bright."

"I didn't mean to bother you, but I think that you might want to use a little less energy," Hinata suggested as politely as she could. "You can feel the entire Mystic Ruins shaking."

"Heh heh. Sorry, Hinata," Tails said with an embarrassed chuckle. "I guess I'm just really excited. This is the first time I ever got to bring the Master Emerald to my workshop. Now that I'm looking after it, I can do all the things I always wanted to try with it."

"That's wonderful, Tails-kun. Just try not to hurt yourself. Anyway, you have some visitors."

The iron doors opened again and now the three Chaotix stepped into the lab. Vector and Charmy immediately started gawking around at the lab's weird and eclectic collections: cases displaying weapons, spare parts for airplanes, rare minerals, beakers filled with bubbling technicolor chemicals, and the Master Emerald engulfed in a field of electricity as its centerpiece.

"Wow! There is so much science going on in this place, I feel smarter just standing here," Charmy remarked, buzzing around the lab, but staying just out of range of Tails' electrical field.

"I feel like I shouldn't be wearing a metal chain around my neck." Vector said as a bolt of lightning flew just an inch past his face.

"Don't worry. I know it looks like everything is going crazy, but I'm in complete control of every single bolt of lightning," Tails said. "They can't strike anything unless I want them to."

"Ah, Tails. Good to see you're keeping yourself busy, but we have to talk to you about some things," Vector said.

"Could we do it later? I'm in the middle of an experiment."

"You're about to be in the middle of a hornet's nest if you're not careful," Espio strode forward and unrolled a sheet of paper, waving it in front of Tails' face. It was a poster with Tails' picture "It didn't take much detective work to find these. Everyone on Mobius knows about your secret. You're a wanted fox, Tails."

Looking troubled now, Tails powered the machines down. The lightning storms fizzled out simultaneously, reduced to a few fleeting sparks. He lifted up his goggles to his forehead and studied the wanted poster. "I don't see a reward amount."

"Dangerous S-Ranked criminals don't get a fixed amount, so a bounty hunter willing to take the job can pretty much name his price," Espio explained. "You're so badly wanted, you're priceless."

"Sonic always said I was priceless."

Espio crossed his arms and glared at him harshly. "You don't seem to appreciate the seriousness of your situation. Pretty soon, every bounty hunter and assassin on Mobius will be coming after you."

Tails scratched his head, still staring at his picture. "I don't get what the big deal is. What did I do that was so terrible?"

"You can read it all here. It's a long list," Espio said stiffly. "Stealing the Master Emerald, sinking the Floating Island into the ocean. Do you realize what a big international incident that created?"

"I had to do that or else Akatsuki would've taken the M.E. And I didn't steal it. Knuckles trusted it to me and told me to look after it. That's all I've been doing. I even clean the thing everyday." Tails pointed to a Naruto Chao that was flying around the Emerald, spraying Windex on it, and wiping it dry. The Chaotix nodded to each other, having to admit that the rock looked much shinier with Tails than it ever did in Knuckles' hands.

"That won't be easy to explain to the government, especially now that Knuckles isn't around anymore to back you up. To their knowledge, you might even have killed him."

Tails looked deeply hurt. "That's not even funny. They have to know that I would never kill my friends and steal their stuff."

"Sure, the old Tails wouldn't, but now that the world knows you're the host to a powerful demon lord. They're going to be very suspicious about your motives."

"I'll just have to explain to them what really happened. If I can just talk to the right people, they can take away these bounties and we can work together instead."

"Don't be naïve," Espio scoffed. "Right now, GUN is in the business of developing weapons specifically designed to fight you. They're not going listen."

"They're worried you've grown too powerful," Vector added. "Now they see you as a threat."

"There's a wanted poster for you too, Hinata," Charmy said and unrolled a second sheet of paper. Another wanted poster, but this time drawn with Hinata's profile.

Hinata's face froze. "Wh-what? I-I'm…wanted?"

"No way! Let me see that," Tails grabbed the poster. He took one look at it and fell over, nearly laughing his tails off. "This is the worst picture of Hinata I've ever seen. It's like Hinata, but…super evil. It's and evil Hinata!" The poster had the vague likeness of Hinata, but with an angry hate filled face, soulless blank eyes, and snarling fangs, dripping with venom. None of this helped Hinata's mood.

"That terrible picture just means that she's good at staying under the radar," Espio reminded him. "You on the other hand, they have a full blown picture. You didn't even try being inconspicuous. And you're supposed to be a ninja?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're posing here. You're smiling at waving at he camera. And you're surrounded by that cursed shroud of sinister red chakra."

"But I like my cursed shroud of demon evilness," Tails protested. "It's very bubbly."

"It's going to get you killed."

"What do you want me to do about it? That chakra is a part of who I am. I can't just shut it away anymore than I can hide my second tail."

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it now," Vector said. "The best thing would be to keep a close eye on GUN. We'll gather as much information as we can. Knowing them, there's a good chance they'll be up to something illegal. There's just one favor we have to ask of you."

"Sure. You name it."

Vector and Charmy both stared at Espio, waiting for him to speak, but the chameleon crossed his arms and kept is mouth shut.

"Come on, Espio. Tell him what you want," Vector elbowed him.

"No, Vector. We're not doing this. No way. This is the stupidest idea ever."

"What is it?" Tails asked.

"We decided that it's time Espio learnt a thing or two about real ninja skills," Vector said. "We're looking for the real heavy stuff. Shooting fire from the mouth, clones, summoning giant monsters. That kind of thing."

"Those aren't real ninja skills," Espio growled. "How that got associated with the name I'll never know."

"Be practical here, man," Vector urged. "Have you seen the reports of what the Akatsuki can do? We need serious offensive firepower to overcome the kind jutsus our enemies can throw. You're the agency's resident ninja. You've got to start upgrading your skills so that we can expand our repertoire."

"I'm not arguing that, but this is the wrong way to go," Espio turned and pointed at Tails. "And there's no way you can teach me ninjutsu. I've been studying the ways of the ninja since before you were born. It's an insult to my entire clan."

"Don't worry, Espie. I wouldn't teach you anything you already know," Tails replied. "Just the techniques you might not have seen before. I'm already giving Cream some lessons. You could come and learn with us."

Espio gave himself a strong facepalm. "Yeah, like that won't make me a laughing stock. Me taking lessons with Cream. Maybe it'd be more reasonable if I learned with your sensei."

Tails shook his head. "That won't happen. Kakashi-sensei doesn't like training anyone. I'm lucky he decided to teach me, and even then, he's hardly ever around. I think he sees his time on Mobius as an extended vacation."

Vector sighed. "All right, Espio. It looks like you're just gonna be stubborn about it. Maybe Tails can at least give us some decent weapon upgrades."

"Sure, I can do it. What do you have for me?"

"Espio's got this old beat up katana," Charmy brought out sheathed katana, covered in dust. Tails unsheathed it and studied the old blade carefully. The thing looked like it came out of a museum. The sword was tarnished and battered with the scars of a thousand battles marring its dulled surface.

"It's an antique," Espio grumbled. "Almost eight hundred years old, crafted by a peerless swords smith who dedicated himself to the art."

"Back in the day, it must've cut down like a million samurai a day with one swing," Charmy said excitedly. "Now Vector just uses it to pick his teeth."

"Vector does what now?" Espio shot them both a killing glance.

"This is great, guys!" Tails said. "Most demons love to inhabit ancient weapons like this. I'll do it right away!" Tails pushed aside all the lab equipment and set the katana on the table. He handed Espio a small slip of paper. "Hold this for a second, Espie. Watch what happens."

Espio held up the seemingly normal slip of paper. A small flame shot up and instantly devoured it.

"What's the deal, Tails?"

"I just gave you your first ninja lesson. You just discovered that you have a fire affinity. Now we know what kind of weapon can work best for you." Tails turned back to the katana. He lifted a steel hammer, one that looked like it could give Amy's hammer a run for its money and lifted it over the sword. Espio bit his lip.

"Be careful with that katana, Tails, It's very valuable," he said anxiously.

The hammer came down on the sword. With a sharp clang, the blade snapped in half. Espio felt a vessel in his head pop.

"Bear with me," Tails lined the broken pieces together and ran a finger along the length of the blade. The room darkened as the air grew heavy with an ominous presence. A small stroke of red chakra shot out and fused it back together. The dusty gray sword turned to smooth, gleaming silver. Orange and red flames constantly flickered along the surface of the sword. With a proud smile, Tails handed the finished sword back to the chameleon. When Espio held it in his hand, it felt warm to the touch. Only by returning the katana to its sheath would the flames vanish.

"We encountered a fire demon back in Labyrinth Zone when we were attacked by Akatsuki," Tails said. "I called it back to inhabit this blade."

"You could craft weapons for us too, right?" Vector asked.

"Sure. Whatever you want."

"This is why we love having you around, Tails," Charmy said. "You've always been our go to guy for supplying us with the best equipment and fixing up that dilapidated old shack we call a detective agency."

"Harumph! Vector snorted. "The place isn't that bad. But this is very impressive, Tails. How did you learn to do this?"

"By studying the living sword I took from Kisame. I know it sounds freaky using a weapon with a spirit living inside it, but they have all kinds of weapons like this in the shinobi nations. Some of them we've already seen like Zabuza's Kubikiri Houchi and Orochimaru's Kusunagi. Through careful observation, I was able to talk with the demon shark spirit that lives inside and I learnt how to infuse other spirits into the right weapons."

"So this weapon is alive and intelligent now? Are you sure it's safe to craft weapons with demons living inside them?"

"No," Tails admitted. "I'm pretty sure it's not. That's why I'm practicing with them as much as I can to see what the limits are. I tried it with my own sword. Even though my lightning blade is really a jutsu, I enhanced its abilities by bringing a spirit into it. Her name is Lightning."

"How very unoriginal," Espio said dully.

"Oh, that won't matter once you see what her true form looks like," Tails snickered and made a mischievous foxy grin." What a babe!"

"Heh. I guess it's true that you've been going under a lot of changes, Tails," Vector said, turning to the pther Chaotix. "Well, I think Tails would like to be alone now. He's got a lot of work to do and so do we."

The Chaotix made their exit, taking the long secret elevator ride up towards the workshop's secret entrance. Espio kept the same grim expression on his face the whole way up.

"Smile for once, Espio," Charmy said. "You just got a brand new ninja sword. I bet you could cut a tank in half with that katana. Maybe several."

"It's a little hard to be upbeat when my brand new ninja sword has a demon sealed in it by a kid who can throw around this godlike power. Let me tell you, that scares me. What if he does decide to cut loose with all that power, taking down anyone he wants? Who could stop him?"

"Oh, come on. It's Tails! He's not going to do anything like that."

"You'd better be right, Vector. You'd better be right."

The ground below their feet moved ever so slightly. A man's head popped up, half black, half white and surrounded by the mouth of a giant venus fly trap. He observed everything with his sinister yellow eyes.

"Zuzu, so this is the kitsune's workshop, eh? Interesting."

* * *

There was a light waiting for them at the end of the dazzling tunnel. Silver and Blaze exited the time stream to find themselves basking in the sunlit plains of Mobius three thousand years ago. She reached up to touch the rays of sunlight that broke through the clouds. Blaze had the sudden urge to run and dance across the open field with her arms outstretched. The thought crossed her mind to just forget about the assassination mission and retire to a new life.

"Look, Silver. It's all so perfect!" Blaze exclaimed. "You can actually see the endless sky, the oceans of grass bending softly in the wind, stretching towards the horizon. And the sun. It's so warm. The air is so sweet. Feel that gentle breeze on your back. Just look at this breathtaking landscape."

"It's very uh…checkered," Silver said. He had never see Blaze this happy before. Her golden eyes beamed in the sunlight.

"Are you sure Kyuubi no Youkai is alive in this era?" she asked. "I can't imagine there being any demons living in a place like this."

"Absolutely. He's out there, plotting, getting stronger. Are you still up for this, Blaze? You know, I could fight him alone."

"No. I must come. Especially now," she insisted. "Up until now, I don't think I ever understood what it was we truly lost. Now, more than never I finally understand what we're fighting for."

"Then you'd better prepare yourself. You'd be surprised to see him. He's younger and a lot smaller, but still powerful. The most important rule is to not underestimate him. At all. His intelligence is matched only by his savagery and lust of carnage. There will be no turning back after this."

"Silver, it's different now," she reached her hand up towards the sun. Her entire body glowed with sunlight. "I can draw upon the power of the sun this time. I'm ten times stronger now than I've ever been."

Laying low from the Akatsuki by hiding in his secret underground hi-tech workshop super fortress lair sounded like an awesome idea at the time, but even an extreme gear head like Tails needed to get back in touch with nature. Even more so for Hinata, who was easily overwhelmed by all the machinery that bombarded her everyday. Luckily for her, she built the chao garden with Tails' help. Like an oasis in the middle of the metal jungle, the chao garden was a fully formed ecosystem for the chao to live and grow, complete with an artificial sunlight and blue sky. With its abundance of natural chakra flowing through the garden, it was the perfect spot for peaceful meditation to focus her chakra and sharpen her techniques. It was also the home to a full colony of Naruto Chao, and it was feeding time.

The very second that Hinata lifted the ramen cup's cover and the hot steam wafted into the air, a pack of hungry Naruto Chao emerged from their hiding places and attacked. Had it been anyone else that opened that ramen cup, they would have been trampled to death by the chao stampede. But Hinata had them well trained enough that they took turns waiting for her to hand feed each of them a mouthful of noodles with her chopsticks.

"Hey, Hinata," Tails flew down and landed on Hinata's lap and also slurped up a mouthful of ramen.

"Hi, Tails-kun," Hinata scratched him behind the ears. The little fox squirmed with delight. "I haven't seen you outside your lab lately."

"That's because I just finished working on a huge project. It's something I made for you that I think you're gonna love."

Hinata's eyes went wide and shaky. "A present? Tails-kun, that's so sweet, but you didn't have to do anything like that."

"I don't want you to feel bad about that dumb old wanted poster and I know you miss Naruto a lot. This should cheer you up a little."

Tails clapped his hands and on command, a pair of Naruto Chao came down and dropped a long slender box into Hinata's hands.

Hinata opened up the box and saw her reflection in the mirror like surface of a shining blade. Two of them. Tails had made her a double bladed sword. Under the bright artificial sunlight, the silver blades shined with a heavenly halo. One blade held the image of a ferocious white tiger, so realistic that it looked ready to leap out of the blade and attack. Just by touching it, Hinata heard the growl of a tiger in her head. The other blade was engraved in exquisite detail with the image of a long, serpentine dragon. Upon touching the engraving, the dragon lit up with a deep blue aura. Deep in her mind, she heard the distant echo of a dragon's roar. She sensed the spirits flying through her, calling to her and binding themselves to her.

"These are very ancient spirits that helped create this sword," Tails said. "The left side is Xiaohu, the tiger spirit. The right side is Jiaolong, the water dragon. They're the best spirits to compliment your Gentle Fist style."

"Tails-kun…" Hinata chocked, tears flowed from her eyes. Whether is was the swords perfect craftsmanship, or Tails' warm smile, her heart was overflowing. She cried and pulled the little fox into the tightest hug. "This…is the most wonderful gift anyone has ever given me. It's so beautiful, I love it!"

"Don't say that until you really see it in action," Tails said. "Try the sword out, Hinata. It's also meant to enhance your suiton chakra."

Hinata blinked. "It can? This is all so overwhelming…" she said. "I don't even know any suiton jutsus."

"Then let's train. Right now. By tomorrow, you'll have figured out half of the Water Country's secret techniques. All we need is a nice body of water to work with."

Tails took her to the river that flowed through the middle of the chao garden. She practiced a few slow but graceful sword strokes over the water. The waves pushed and pulled, following the swaying motion of Hinata's arms. That much control over water Hinata had. She tried a fast swing next. A wave rushed below. The faster she swung her sword, the faster the waters bubbled and swirl around.

"See? It's working, Hinata." Tails said excitedly.

"A-Ano, I don't think I'm the one actually doing this."

"What?"

Eventually, two columns of water rose up and took on vague human shapes. The smaller form turned into a small female raccoon Mobian. The other morphed into a human.

The raccoon girl staggered around in a daze. "Strewth! I don't think I came out right after that. Is my head on backwards?"

The white haired human sighed. "You're fine. It just takes awhile to get used to the transformation. Parts of your brain might be missing, though," he said, then turned to Tails.

"Hi, fuzzball. I finally found you." He tried to give a genuinely friendly greeting, but with his sharp toothed smile, he couldn't shake off the killer vibe.

Tails stepped back carefully, kunai in hand. "You're that mist guy that tried to kill me, aren't you?"

"Yes, I did. And you shot me in the face for all that trouble, but I'd like to think we moved past all that," Suigetsu bent down and put a friendly arm around the kit. "I'm here because last time we met, we talked about all the different weapons you could make for me—Hey! Look who else is here," he stopped and grinned at Hinata. "Remember me? I think we tried to kill each other, too. Isn't that funny all of us being reunited like this? Oh, and this annoying little creature is Marine."

"Ahem! This annoying little creature is Captain Marine the Raccoon!" she shouted.

"How did you guys get in here?" Tails asked.

Suigetsu laughed. "Yeah, you had this place locked up tight, but you still have to get your water in from somewhere. All I had to do was transform into liquid form and then go with the flow."

"Hey, Suigetsu," Marine piped up. "While we're here, we should try to steal that huge Master Emerald they got here. You should see the size of that rock, mate!"

"Great idea. Before we get to that, are there any other acts of larceny that you would like to talk about, out loud, in front of the owner?"

"Oh, right," Marine smacked herself. Where are my manners?" she ran up to Tails and vigorously shook his hand. "Put 'er there, mate. Suigetsu's told me so many things about you. Delighted to finally meet you in person, Mr. T."

"Mr. T…?" Tails scratched his head, perplexed.

"Now that we're all best friends, I guess I won't be taking that big emerald anymore. I'd never steal from a friend. Hey, you're good with machines, right?"

"Yeah, I do build and fix things…"

"Great! Cuz I got a busted engine on my ship that needs some fixin'. Maybe you could soup it up a little, eh? You know, make it torpedo proof?"

"I haven't worked on any ships in awhile, but I do have a whole section that's devoted to aquatic engineering several floors down."

"Hey! You know what? Just leave it to me and I'll go down there and fix it all up myself," Marine offerred.

"Are you sure you'll be all right by yourself?"

"Ha! I'm the greatest mechanic in the world!" Marine announced grandly and ran off.

Once Marine was gone, Suigetsu sighed with relief. "Yes! Alone at last. Let us savor the silence."

Suigetsu inhaled a deep breath and savored. His eye caught the weapon in Hinata's hands. "Nice set of swords, by the way. Can you make something like that for me too?"

"What kind of sword do you want?" Tails asked.

Suigetsu stretched his arms out. "I want it big. You remember Zabuza's sword, right? I want it that big. Maybe bigger."

"That'll be way over six feet." Tails remembered. "I've got time today. Let's go to the armory. We can put something together over there."

"Hold on, Tails," Pakkun ran over to Tails, panting, looking like he was in a big hurry. "I smell trouble. Intruders."

"I guess I don't have much time after all. Is it Akatsuki?"

"No. Regular humans. There's a whole group of them. Chakra levels aren't very high, but they have weapons. Lots of guns."

"Sounds like GUN's already making a move," Tails stepped out of the garden and checked the surveillance monitors. The cave entrance to the workshop sprang into view on the screen. Tails watched a group of soldiers rappelling down a steep cliff. Their black full body armor concealed their faces completely, but they wore their GUN insignias on their uniforms proudly.

"I recognize those guys," Tails said. "It's Paladin Sigma-Alpha 2. They're GUN's elite monster hunting squad. They captured Sonic when the world thought he was a bad guy. It makes sense that GUN would send them if they want me dead. I just can't believe they found me."

"They must have followed someone," Pakkun said.

Suigetsu rolled his head back and laughed. "Ha! It's my fault. After I destroyed their battleship, they must've tracked us somehow. My bad, Tails. I guess I made some trouble for you."

"And you find this amusing for some reason?" Pakkun asked, he wrinked his face even more than was thought possible.

"You're damn right I do. I'll make it up to you by going down there and killing them all for you. Then we can get back to business."

"No unnecessary killing," Tails said. "If GUN finds out their team is dead, they'll bring the entire army down on me hard."

"I can only agree with that because I currently don't have a sword on me. Now if I did—"

There was a loud snap then suddenly, everything went black. Tails' hands flared with a light aura of electricity.

"They cut the power," Tails grumbled. "Great Now we have to fight them in the dark. This would be a lot nicer if Kakashi-sensei was here when stuff like this happened."

"Don't worry, Tails-kun," came Hinata's voice. "I can see in the dark perfectly."

"Oh, yeah. My nighttime vision is pretty good, too. Maybe together we can—" Tails stopped when he heard the clicking sound of several guns being locked and loaded. Hinata's eyes hardened like diamonds with her veins erupting on the surface of her face. In the dark, with her eyes like that, armed to the teeth, a fully stocked bandolier slung across her chest, and an impossibly sharp, mystical double bladed sword strapped to her back, Hinata looked very scary.

"I can take care of them, Tails-kun. You just make sure the Master Emerald is safe."

* * *

Pein was rarely ever found in any formal location, preferring to perch himself haphazardly on the highest rooftop he could find where he would spend day and night gazing at the skyline with his menacing eyes.

A reminder that God was always watching.

"What's happening down there, Zetsu?"

"GUN has put together a task force and sent them down to kill the jinchuuriki." Zetsu's voice echoed in his head.

Pein closed his eyes. "I see. They want to prevent us from fulfilling our goal."

"It looks like I'll have to get my hands dirty with a few unnecessary deaths."

"There's no such thing as 'unnecessary deaths.' Kill them all. Can you handle them all and bring the kitsune back alive?"

"With my jutsu? Most definitely."

"Good. Relay all your information to Kisame. He wants his sword back." Pein's voice faded from his mind.

"He knows where to find it. It was thanks to his bond with that weapon that helped me find this location in the first place."

"That fox can be stupid in so many ways. This capture will be easy." Black Zetsu said.

"We won't be very popular with the other members to succeed where they failed. This will make them look bad." White Zetsu spoke up.

"Shut up, you idiot," the black side hissed. "That doesn't matter. Tonight, we'll finally have the Kyuubi's chakra."

* * *

A colony of bats shrieked and scattered from their roosts as they sensed the disturbance of humans rappelling down the catacombs. Bright green eyes from their night vision masks were the only lights to guide their way through the pitch-blackness and navigate the complex pathways through the caves.

"Central Control," the Captain spoke into his com link. "This is Paladin Sigma-Alpha 2 heading down the lowest reaches of the catacombs of the Mystic Ruins. Power grid in the area is disabled. We should manage to infiltrate the laboratory in 2300 hours, over."

"This is Central Command," a grating voice replied. It was the voice of GUN Commander Abraham Tower himself. "You followed the trail left by those pirates?"

"Affirmative. They're down here collaborating with the kitsune."

"You will be heading off our radar and won't be in radio contact anymore. Once you enter the demon fox's territory, you're on your own," The Commander's voice went out.

Hinata perched herself as they scaled down the cliff. Observing the flow of chakra through their pathways, she gauged their skills. They were certainly skilled combatants, but with no techniques to speak of. Still, the enormous guns and rifles they carried, the black full body armor, and the swords strapped to their backs made Hinata more than a little nervous. But then, so did a lot of things. Either way, She had to stop them before they could find Tails-kun.

Slowly, Hinata lifted her guns from her holsters. This was a prime opportunity to test her sharp shooting skills. She aimed not for a set of brutal headshots, but for their weapons. Disarming them was all that was needed. As she narrowed her eyes and readied her aim, the guns made a loud clicking noise, echoing all around the cave.

Glowing green eyes turned towards her.

Damn. They spotted her.

"It's one of the demon's comrades. Blast her!"

The team swung off their ropes onto solid footing and aimed their guns. With combined night vision and infrared sensors, they set their sights on Hinata and opened fire. Their machine guns lit up the darkness of the cave like a set of strobe lights, releasing a deadly barrage of ammo.

Hinata swooped down with two pistols in each hand. Dividing her focus between running along the walls and aiming, Hinata dodged her way through the stream of bullets and fired. Shots rang out from above and the soldiers' weapons flew from their hands and skidded across the stone floors, some shattering to pieces.

Hinata landed right in the middle of the group returned the guns to her side. Now without their firearms, the soldiers drew their swords. Only the elite carried swords as weapons. Hinata returned the guns her side and brought out her brand new sword.

Surrounded by five men, Hinata caught them all in her 360-degree vision and Hinata's sword swished with ease along with her long, wavy hair. The twin blades worked together in perfect harmony, blue silvery light glinted off their surface. The light flared in the darkness like comets streaking through the empty void of space. Before the first soldier could even blink, there was a flash and his sword fell apart, sliced clean in half. The rest of the group fell just as easily. Their heavy, reinforced swords snapped in half like twigs and Hinata cleaved through their kevlar and grazed the skin.

Thin droplets of blood glistened like tiny rubies on the silver blades' edges. The wounds were the tiniest of scratches, yet the men dropped to the floor helpless, unable to move. Hinata's Jyuuken channeled through her sword perfectly.

Hinata hated that feeling of overconfidence getting to her, but this was ridiculously easy.

A clapping sound echoed throughout the cavern.

"Well done. Very well done," a rusty voice called out to her. The darkness came alive with the voice's killing intent.

"Don't come any closer," Hinata cried, aiming her gun at the blackness. "I can see you, even in complete darkness."

"Oh, I have no doubt that your eyes can see in the dark, but you can't see me," the dark voice retorted. "Your Byakagun is no match for my golden eyes. You should've gone back home with your friends when you had the chance. Your presence here is a mistake."

There was a low, raspy chuckle. The person seemed to be circling her closely and still somehow evaded her Byakagun.

"You're not with GUN. You're an Akatsuki, aren't you?"

"I'm impressed, Hyuuga Hinata," said the whispery voice. "You know when you're up against a real enemy."

"Who are you?"

"Akatsuki's master spy. That's all you need to know."

A cold hand suddenly swept across her cheek. Hinata shrieked and jumped back.

"I admire that shine in your eyes, Hyuuga girl. I wish our organization would have recruited a Hyuuga member. They can be so stiff sometimes, but at least they're not as creepy as those Uchiha."

"I don't care what you do with me, but don't lay a finger on Tails-kun."

"If my jutsu that I prepared is successful, he's already as good as dead. Soon, you will be dead for real."

In that instant, golden eyes lit up and Hinata saw him standing right beside her. Before she could make out the inhuman face, he licked the sword out of her hands.

Hinata lashed out with her open palm. Her assailant was quick. He ducked under her strike and counterattacked with an upward swipe, the glint of a knife flickered before her eyes. Hinata swerved her head to one side. Strands of sliced hair flew by her face. Her palm came down and landed with a hard thump into the enemy's chest.

"That Jyuuken stings," he exhaled heavily, as if exhausted. "That could've easily stopped my heart. Good thing I don't have one…"

Hinata felt a swift rush above her, and then a stunning searing blow exploded in her backside that dropped her to the ground. Her amr reached back and felt cold metal protruding from her. As she lay there, unable to move, she realized that a kunai had been driven into her back. Warm blood soaked through her shirt and ran down her arms, spilling onto the floor. The edges of the killer's cloak fluttered just of her arm's reach. Hinata's eyes lifted up, her vision getting blurrier as she sank into a deeper darkness, the last thing she saw before her heart stopped were those haunting yellow eyes.

"Now for the kitsune."

* * *

Suigetsu didn't mind sitting in the dark. He was used to working in the murky, underwater depths. He actually preferred the deep blue sea and the fog shrouded mist village to the always sunny days of Konoha. And it was here that he could appreciate the magnificent sword Samehada in all its monstrous glory. He pressed his nose to the tank and watched as the shark sword seemed to swim on its own through the water.

"Un-freaking believable. You actually survived a fight with Kisame, took his own sword and spoke to it? Are you keeping it?"

"I need it for my research," Tails said. "It's best if it stays here."

"Fair enough. It's Zabuza's sword I really want. I've been hunting it down, but then one day, its chakra signature just disappeared."

"My friend Amy took it from Kisame," Tails explained. "She went back to your home world with it."

"I seriously doubt that any of your little Mobian friends can actually wield that sword properly," Suigetsu huffed.

Tails chuckled. "Then you don't know Amy. You'd be surprised what she can do with that sword. But then, she's used to the big weapons."

"If she's not from the Mist village, she can't be called a rightful owner. I'll have to take it back from your friend eventually, but until then, I need a replacement sword."

"I have something in mind that I think you'll like. Luckily for you, I've been speaking to the ghost of Zabuza's old comrade. He has tons of information on the Seven Swords of the Mist. I can make you something that would be superior to them."

Suigetsu's eyes widened. "Really? Will it be big?"

"Sure. I can make it as big as you want," Tails reminded him again for the umpteenth time.

"And I don't have to pay you anything for this?"

"I could always use extra help to fight the Akatsuki."

Suigetsu laughed. "Hell, I'd fight them for free. You've got a deal, kid."

"I'll need all the help I can get. I can tell they're plotting something big. This upcoming war is gonna be huge."

"There will be no war coming, demon. Not if I can help it."

A hedgehog stepped into the dim lighting, ghost-like with his white fur and spectral green aura around him. He stared straight at Tails with a look of pure malevolence.

Suigetsu groaned. "Who's this? Another one of your hedgehog friends?"

Tails shook his head. "I don't know. I've never seen this guy before in my life."

The hedgehog pointed an accusing finger at Tails. "My name is Silver the Hedgehog, demon. I've traveled three thousand years from the future to find you and—"

"The future?" Tails interrupted loudly, his eyes beaming. "You're a time traveler? That's awesome! I have to hear what that's like!" Jumping up and down with his tails wagging, the little fox looked like he was about to explode.

Silver found himself blinking rapidly at the expression on Tails' reaction. He was a peace loving hedgehog at heart, so either he wasn't projecting an effective killing intent, or the demon was mocking him. Or was this fox genuinely in such high spirits? Whatever the case was, Silver did not dare let his guard down. No matter how non-threatening the demon lord looked.

Silver cleared his throat and tried to make his voice deeper and darker. "You really want to know what happened? After three millennia, you will have caused a worldwide disaster of biblical proportions."

Tails raised his brow. "Biblical proportions?"

"Fire and brimstone raining from the sky. Oceans and seas boiling. The gates of Hell bursting wide open. The earth soaked with the blood of billions. Earthquakes. Volcanoes. An eternity of darkness. The dead rising from their grave."

"Kittens stuffed in blenders," Suigetsu added.

Silver and Tails both turned to stare at him.

"Eh? Am I right? It sounded like you were going there."

Tails' triangular ears drooped and his head sagged in deep dejection. "Aw…that's terrible. We're gonna have one of the bad futures. I thought that in three thousand years, things would get better and the world would be all cool and shiny and futurey."

"You have only yourself to blame, demon," Silver said in a low voice. "You are the source of calamity. The bringer of destruction. If I am to prevent this dark future of our world, I must destroy you today."

"But wait!" Tails threw his hands up. "That doesn't make a lot of sense. Time travel logic has so many inconsistencies in it, there's no way to know if that could work. Even if you perfected time travel technology, there are still so many paradoxes to take into account. We don't know the exact laws of temporal mutability. Time may not even be a strict progression of cause to effect. You might wind up with an even more messed up future than the one you left behind."

"Good job, Tails," Suigetsu said. "Use science to confuse him, then we'll go in for the kill."

"I don't want to fight him. He's from the future. We have so much to learn from him. I just want to show that killing me won't help to reset the time stream."

"Only one way to find out." A very big gun appeared from what Tails figured was a mini-wormhole. Silver aimed the gun poin

t blank at Tails' face. The size and heaviness of the thing's barrel suggested that something brutal was supposed to shoot out of there.

Tails' face suddenly lit up again. "Awesome! He brought futuristic weapons with him. This is so cool! You've got to let me see how they work. From the look of it, this must be a pulse disintegrator that fires a micro-singularity that obliterates a target's molecular structure upon contact." Tails rubbed his hand against it, admiring its sleek design, the patterns of crystal etched inside, and its brilliant chrome finish.

Suigetsu pounded Tails over the head. "Would you stop geeking out like that? He's trying to kill you, moron."

"Oh, right," Tails tried very hard to make a serious face. "I mean…Oh, no! He's got a futuristic weapon."

Silver had enough. With the flick of a switch, all the zig zagging crystalline patterns along the gun lit up with power as the rifle hummed to life. The air grew hotter as a pulsing white light radiated from inside.

"Jump!" Tails shouted. Both he and Suigetsu leapt in opposite directions just as Silver pulled the trigger and—

The gun exploded in Silver's face. The hedgehog yelled as the blast threw him across the room. Tails was sure that would have put him out, but he stood up only a second later. His face was burnt and ashen with blood streaming down his face where gun fragments shredded into him. His yellow eyes burned with vengeance.

Tails and Suigetsu started to run.

"Bah. Bringing a badass weapon from the future only to have it explode in your face," Suigetsu murmured. "What an idiot."

"No. His weapon was perfect. He could've vaporized us both."

"Perfect? You saw how that hunk of junk backfired."

"You didn't see the exploding tag I attached when I touched the gun?" Tails asked.

"What? So why don't you get back there and finish him?" Suigetsu asked irritably.

"I told you. I don't want to fight him. The guy's just confused. Let's just find Hinata and Marine and worry about him later. This place has gotten way too crowded all of a sudden."

* * *

Marine briskly walked through the dark heart of the workshop basement, her red green shoes making an echoing thump on the metal floor. The repairs on her ship didn't take nearly as long as she thought. Her new engine was all fired up and ready to run just before all the lights went out. Her search for a light source had led her near the reactor room where she felt a powerful presence emanating from within.

The door was slightly ajar. She slipped open the door, ducked inside, and turned towards the light. Shadows yawned from the open doorways and danced along the walls. The reactor in the middle of the room hummed with power.

"Strewth! The boy's really got a giant reactor in the middle of his workshop."

She covered her mouth when she realized that the other person in the room turned to see her.

It was a cat. An wealthy one from the looks of her outfit. Maybe even royalty? Very interesting, Marine thought. Almost as interesting as the fire that surged out of her hands.

"You should get out of here while you still can, child. You don't want to be here when this whole lair collapses. I'm going to blow this reactor and destroy this monster's work."

The pillar's metal surface melted down to hot slag where her hands touched. In only minutes, her fires would eat through the entire pillar until she breached the core.

"Wait a minute. You don't want to do that, um…"

"Blaze. Princess Blaze. Now go. I have no quarrel with you. Stay out of my way and get out of here, if you know what's good for you."

"Look, I hate to be the nosy stickybeak, but blowin' up nuclear reactors ain't exactly the best for your health."

"Are you one of the demon fox's friends?" Blaze asked. There was a stiffness to her voice. She definitely sounded like a royal person.

"Well, yeah, but only for a few minutes." Fire flickered in the cat's eyes. "Not sure if that's worth killing me over. But if it's a fight you want…"

Marine rushed towards the cat, her cutlass raised. Blaze knocked it out of her hand with a bolt of flame. Marine dodged a second ray of fire and swung a punch. Blaze caught her incoming fist with an open palm, lifted the raccoon up and threw her to the opposite wall of the corridor. Slamming the back of her head with a hard thud, Marine fell to the floor. Spots danced around her eyes as she saw a blurry purple image of Blaze turning away from her and focusing her fire to melt down the reactor.

"Strewth!" she grunted through gritted teeth. "I can't let this flamin' sheila go blowin' stuff up like that." Marine braced her arms up against the wall to help lift her up. Her hands fell upon something hanging from the wall. Something very useful.

"Hehehe…"The spots cleared away and Marine's roguish smile came back.

Blaze laid her hands on the reactor and closed her eyes, appearing to be deep on prayer. "Silver, I don't know if you can hear me in your head or not, but please win. We're so close to accomplishing our mission. Soon, the Kyuubi and his world will go up in flames and he'll vanish from the pages of history like smoke."

"Hey, pussycat!" Marine shouted. Blaze spun around to see the little raccoon girl armed with a giant hose. "Ever try drinking from the fire hose?" the high-pressure blast of water knocked Blaze off her feet and crashed her into the ceiling. Marine poured it one until every last spark of fire died out. The cat princess slumped to the floor in a sopping wet heap, smoke rising from of her unconscious body.

"That was easier than I thought," Marine bent down to get a good look at the cat. "Too bad. I think we coulda been good friends. I could use firepower like that on my ship."

Marine picked up her cutlass on the way out and was about to leave when something caught her eye in the reflective light of her sword.

Slowly, Blaze climbed to her feet. The water dripping from her sizzled. Steam rose from her body, her glowing yellow eyes rimmed with flame. Marine could see the heat in the air rising, the soles of her shoes started melting.

Blaze let out a piercing yowl.

"Oh, Crikey…." Marine ducked for cover, squeezed her eyes closed and ran just as everything around her burst into flames.

* * *

Tails wasn't sure at what point during their chase did Suigetsu split off and go his own way. The mist assassin didn't seem too keen on running away in the first place. Neither did Tails, but this was also what ninjas did. There were more important things to deal with like finding Marine and Hinata, and guarding the Master Emerald. There were way too many people in his workshop today.

He burst into the lab, glad to see that he Master Emerald was still there, just as he left it. Except for the dark, wet stuff dripping down its surface.

Blood. Tails didn't need any lights to know that it was drizzling blood all around. It looked more black than red against the Emerald's green glow, but its fresh, metallic smell was there.

Somebody died here only a few minutes ago.

Hinata's blood? An unspeakable dread sank into his guts when he thought about it, made worse when a few droplets of blood dripped into his head.

Tails stared up to the ceiling. He felt his throat close in utter horror. It was the bodies of the GUN commandos, all staring down at him as they hung there like thick slabs of meat. Their stomachs were sliced open, letting their bowels hang loose. They all died in the same gruesome way. A thick jungle vine, covered in sharp barbs had been driven into the mouth where it went straight down the neck and exploded out the stomach. That same vine kept their mangled corpses suspended to the ceiling, its green tendrils stained red with human blood. Some stray organs slipped loose and plopped to the ground. Tails maneuvered carefully around the room. The smooth metal floor was slippery with puddles of blood.

"Who did this?"

He heard footsteps behind him.

Tails swerved around and found the silver hedgehog barring the doorway, calmly stepping towards him. His burnt and blood smeared face only intensified the hate glimmering in his eyes.

"Unbelievable! Even as a child, does your bloodlust know no bounds?"

"I didn't do this," Tails swore. "Look, I don't have time for this. There's a real killer on the loose. I have to find him before somebody else dies. I can't fight with you now."

"You don't have a choice," Silver's telekinetic thrust threw Tails off his feet. He sailed into the computer console with a crashing thud.

For the first time, Silver smiled. Not a big one, just a small smirk on the corner of his lips. At last, the fated moment had come to vanquish the demon lord. Silver raised his hands and lifted the heavy computer console up towards the ceiling, casting a menacing shadow over Tails.

"Farewell, demon," Silver said and sent the machines hurtling down to crush him.

An instantaneous flash of light split the machine clean in two. Tails slowly lifted himself from the wreck, the edges of the two halves glowed red hot and dripped molten steel. The weapon that cut it, a shining blue sword of lightning flared in his hand. Silver took a careful step back. He knew exactly what that kind of weapon could do to living flesh, and he knew how fast it could move in the demon fox's hand.

There was only one thing he had that could possibly block it.

"Hmph. I see my years sword training will at last pay off," Silver held his out his hand and from whence sprang to life a green blade of pure psionic energy. "I've honed my powers to their peak. That beam sword of yours won't be enough."

"Actually, the correct name of my technique would be **Kyuuten no Raikiri (Heavenly Lightning Cutter) **Or you could call her Lightning," he spun his sword around and assumed a stance.

"To the death then, demon."

They lunged. Streaking arcs of light trailed behind them as they rushed towards each other.

Sparks, green and blue, erupted as blades of energy clashed together. The chamber echoed with their fury. Twisting and whirling, Silver threw himself at his at the demon with a dazzling display of swordsmanship. Tails' blade wove in at just the right angle to catch Silver's strike in time. But only barely avoiding the mortal blows. Every single sword stroke was met with a flash of lightning.

Furious that Tails managed to block all his blows, Silver let out a shout and swung his sword down hard over Tails' head. Their swords collided in a brilliant explosion of light and ozone. It took all the chakra of a raging thunderstorm to push the sword back. Silver could see the lightning bolts swimming inside the fox's blue eyes and crackling in between his fangs. Silver own fur started to stand on end. A surprise tail slap the face knocked Silver off his feet and sent him slamming into the floor on his back. Silver threw himself into a backroll that brought him back to his feet. That hit way harder than he thought.

They both circled each other warily, mentally reviewing the battle thus far. The psychic warrior's movements were like nothing Tails had ever seen or had been prepared for by Kakashi. He studied all kinds of kenjutsu styles, but Silver had three millennia of evolved never before seen sword techniques ahead of him.

Meaning that he would need to invent some new moves on the spot.

Silver rehearsed it all in his head how the rest of the battle would go. Aim to cut those distracting tails off. Then go for the limbs, and finally, the head. With that image of the monster fox's death fresh in his mind, fueling his own chakra, Silver struck again with a sharp, rising sword stroke.

It was almost impossible to notice in the midst of the fray, but Tails' feet didn't touch the ground. The friction slowed him down too much. The kit was dancing in the air. Silver unleashed a telekinetic blast that struck the kit full force. Tails raised his sword in front of him and braced himself for the impact as the wave of force violently plowed into the kit, flinging him off balance.

Silver smiled. Now he had him. The enraged hedgehog lunged toward the fox, his sword leading to cut him down. A second sword shot up to block and Tails launched his counterattack with two lightning blades in each hand.

"You're not going to go down quickly, are you?" Silver asked.

"What's your rush? You have a full three thousand years to kill me." Tails said, and flew down with dual wielding swords.

Two tails. Two swords. This fight was getting much more difficult for Silver to keep up. He could barely even see Tails anymore behind that tornado of annihilating energy he generated. With a blazing rhythm of swings and stabs, it Tails appeared to strike with a dozen swords slashing in all directions at once. Silver breathed. He tried to focus and clear his mind and slow things down, see past the impenetrable whirlwind.

A roaring blast of flame detonated above them. The ceiling came crashing down, raining down fire and debris. Tails broke off his attack when the explosion bounced against his ears.

"Ha! It's over, demon," Silver snarled. "Blaze must have successfully destroyed your reactor. Now your accursed laboratory will die in a fiery conflagration and you're going with it."

Tails looked him right in the eye to see if he was really serious. He was. "You seriously want to keep fighting? We have to stop this!" Tails shouted. "Everything's gonna blow."

"Fine by me. Even if I have to buried here with you, I will destroy you, demon. For the world's sake. For Blaze's sake."

Even with fiery embers raining down around them, Silver continued his attack as if nothing else in the world mattered. Sheets of roaring flames surrounded them as they dueled. Tails saw clearly now that he was fighting an opponent whose own life mattered nothing. That made him a million times more dangerous.

Tails could barely hear the hedgehog's shouts amidst the fire. Silver surged at him and thrust his mind blade forward. Tails spun his tails and launched himself high above Silver's deadly arc. Flying above his opponent, Tails' swords winked out of existence. In his hands now, he threw his senbon needles.

Several senbon whistled through the air as they sailed downwards. Too fast, too inivisble to dodge, the chakra enhanced needles imbedded themselves into Silver's hand. A minor wound really, but for someone who relied on the uninterrupted flow of energy in his body, it was a devastating strike. Silver's mind blade fizzled out to nothing more than a few harmless green sparks. He gripped his bleeding hand. Tails flashed in front of him. Now disarmed, Silver, dropped to his knees in front of the demon fox.

"I can't feel any power in my hands anymore," Silver growled. "Kill me."

"I thought you might say that," Tails looked at him with sympathetic eyes and held out his hand. "Come on. We need to get out of here. You don't look like such a bad guy. My fight's not with you."

A hollow laugh rasped in Tails' ear. "You're right about that, Nine Tails. It's with me."

From out of nowhere, a blob of white ooze emerged from Silver's back and wrapped its slimy tendrils around his body.

"What kind of trick is this, demon?"

"Don't blame him. This was my doing," Zetsu's pasty white head emerged from the muck. "It looks like neither of you noticed my spore jutsu from the ceiling. Too bad. There's no defense once the spores set in." The same white stuff snuck up from behind Tails and latched onto him, sticking to his fur like glue.

"Akatsuki… Let him go! He didn't do anything to you," Tails cried as he struggled against the thick slime, but found himself feeling weaker every second. The spores gave off a fearful smell.

"Oh, but he has such interesting chakra," Zetsu said. Silver's green aura slowy faded, while Zetsu's body lit up with its power. "I don't know who you are or where you came from, but you're interfering with my mission. I'm taking your powers in return for the trouble you caused me." Zetsu tossed him aside like trash and turned to Tails. "As for you…"

Zetsu grinned as he watched Tails' struggle. Poor kid wasn't giving up. Thick globs of plant sludge bound Tails' hands feet and tails together. Zetsu rarely ever laughed, but allowed a grim chuckle to escape through his monster teeth. With the kitsune finally captured, Zetsu's full body rose from the spore infested slime.

"We'd better go before this whole place comes crashing down," he said. "Fire's not really my thing. You're lucky you ran into me. I might be the only one who can actually get out of here in time."

"Hinata! Where's Hinata?" Tails shouted.

"Dead by now," he said. "No use trying to find what's left of her body. Not in this inferno. Now let's go."

"I'll never go with you! Never!"

"Zetsu's tendrils wrapped themselves around the fox's mouth and muffled his cries. With the kitsune all bound up in a neat little package, Zetsu picked him up and was about to leave, until he heard the distinctive hard click of a gun behind him.

Zetsu's yellow eyes flew open. "You…"

Hinata shuffled forward, blood dripping down her body. The kunai he drove through her was still lodged in her backside. Zetsu grinned. Some people didn't know how to stay dead. Killing her off for real wouldn't be such a problem.

Then he saw the giant flamethrower she had aimed at him.

"Heh. Put that down. Your little kitsune's already mine and you're as good as dead."

Hinata didn't want to waste any of what little chakra she had left on him, except for one word.

"Burn."

A huge gout of flame blasted Zetsu lit up like a pile of dry leaves. He screamed as the hissing fires devoured him and forced him to drop the kitsune. A sickening cloud of black smoke rose from his body.

Hinata sank into a battle crouch and readied the two-bladed sword that Tails made for her.

Hinata's sword swept outward in a brilliant flash of steel. Zetsu's arms spun away from his body. While he stared at the stumps on his arms, Hinata twirled her sword around, building momentum, then sent it slashing down over his head. The fierce roar of a tiger thundered in the air as the blade sliced Zetsu down the middle. Green blood gushed into her face and eyes, though it was the inky black smoke rising from Zetsu's burning corpse that stung her eyes and gave off a nauseating smell.

Hinata ran past the dead plant monster towards Tails and sliced open the cocoon of hardened ooze.

"Tails-kun! Are you all right?" she gently shook him to rouse him to his feet.

"Huh? Forget me, Hinata! There's a kunai sticking out of your back!"

Hinata reached over for the kunai. She groaned in pain as she pulled the blade out with a sickening squelch. Fresh blood flowed freely from the open wound. Tossing the bloody kunai aside, Hinata tore her shirt off and bandaged it around her wound tight enough to stop the blood flow.

"I'll be okay. We have to go right now," Hinata said, grabbing Tails' hand tightly and bolting towards the nearest exit.

The blood and sweat that poured down her exposed back seemed to boil as they raced down the hallways wreathed in flames. She had to double her efforts, practically dragging Tails along. The poor kit, all drained of energy could barely move on his own. The ruins quaked uncontrollably and Tails lost his footing and fell flat on his chin.

"I-I can't move. I'm not gonna make it."

"Yes, you are," Hinata tucked Tails under her arm and held him close to her chest. She kept running until she found the hatch that let all the way up to the surface. With her grappling gun, she fired a hook line straight upwards and zipped them both up to the surface while everything came crashing down in a blaze of destruction below them.

Flinging herself out of the open hatch into the open air, Hinata scanned the crumbling mountainside, trying to decide where to go next. Then she heard a voice calling out to them from the sky.

"Ahoy, mates. Need a lift?" Marine waved to them from atop her Ocean Tornado, now turned flying airship. Suigetsu stood beside her and tossed a rope ladder off the edge. Hinata grasped the bottom rung and scrambled up as the flames licked at her feet.

"We made it, Tails-kun," Hinata said. "Everything's going to be fine now."

Cimbing the ladder one handed wasn't too hard for Hinata, even in her state. She was almost at the top, but something strong yanked on the ladder, almost ripping it off from the ship.

Zetsu. The plant monster hung on to the bottom of the ladder. Despite the searing flames that cloaked his body and slowly cooked his flesh, he grinned up at them, golden eyes burning hotter than the fires that surrounded him. Reaching out with an arm wrapped in wisps of flame, he snared one of Tails' tails. Tails yelped as his tail caught on fire.

"You…you're still alive?" Hinata asked.

"That was an admirable try…" White Zetsu said softly.

"But you won't get another shot!" Black Zetsu said harshly.

"Let go of Tails-kun and I won't have to," Hinata jerked a pistol off her belt.

Zetsu laughed while Tails started to cry. Both sounds made Hinata sick to her stomach.

"Tsch. Weak pathetic girl. I've been watching you and your teammates for years. You don't have what it takes to pull that trigger."

Hinata took aim and fired into Zetsu's face. He sneered through razor sharp teeth as dark blood dripped down from an open hole. He advanced slowly. Hinata fired again, unloading every single round. Each shot forced him to stagger back, made him loosen his hold a little more. The last shot buried itself into Zetsu's head, right between the eyes. He let go and Hinata watched his body tumble down through the sky until he became black speck consumed by the fire storm below.

The mountains of the mystic Ruins erupted in a brilliant conflagration of obliterating energy. The shockwaves tore trees from the ground and incinerated them into ash. Marine gritted her teeth and fired the engines at top speed the ship clear of the fireballs that shot up into the sky. Suspended in the sky as the earth below her, Hinata got the best possible view of the explosion. Below, it looked like the mouth of Hell opened up to swallow the Mystic Ruins.

It was a view she never wanted to see that close up again.

The air grew cooler, calmer. A welcome airy breeze blew through Hinata's hair. She set down on the wooden deck with Tails in her lap and applied her healing salve to the burn on his tail, then tore off what was left of her shirt to bandage it.

"You're all right now, Tails-kun. He's not coming back this time." Tails' ears were flattened against his head and Hinata knew this was a sign that the little fox was upset, so she reached to scratch them, trying to get them to perk up again. Tails always loved that.

Tails flung both harms around Hinata's waist and hugged her tightly. "Zetsu said you were dead," he mumbled into her chest. She felt a few tears dropping on her.

"It looked that way to him. I can alter the flow of chakra to put my body into a metabolic state and stop my heart for a few minutes. I'm sorry if I worried you."

Tails felt his strength coming back to him. At least in his tails, based on how they were wagging freely. His ears perked up and his eyes were filled with energy again.

"Wow, Hinata. You're crazy! How could you ever pull all that off?"

"What would Naruto-kun have done?"

Tails thought about it for for a second. "…the same thing."

"And I'd do it again. Every single time," Hinata gave him a tender smile and softly stroked his fur.

"Wow! Everything just tends to explode around you, doesn't it, mate?" Marine said, after watching the fires sweep across the Mystic Ruins. "You're gonna be a lot of fun to have around on this ship. I can tell. I fixed up the ship real good. Even gave it the mechanism to make it fly. Now we can be air pirates!"

"I'd better take a look at it. Just to make sure it won't break on us." Tails stood up and headed towards the engine room.

"Why? You saying you don't trust my expert machine skills, mate?"

"Not at all," Tails started to defend himself. "But if there are two mechanics on this airship, it helps for us both to know how things are running. I might even be able to build a couple additions."

"Yeah? Like rocket boosters? Then…Strewth! We can be SPACE PIRATES!"

"Wait, Tails-kun," Hinata said nervously. "You shouldn't be exerting yourself. You're chakra."

"It's okay, Hinata. My chakra's starting to replenish itself already. I guess old Kyuubi can't stay down for long."

"So you admit that you're the Kyuubi!" Silver and Blaze leapt down from the sails.

"Gah! It's the Hellcat!" Marine exclaimed.

Blaze's body was laced with fire, but Silver's aura was noticeably absent. Even after sucking every last drop of energy out of the guy he was still willing to fight.

Marine was getting an especially nasty glare from Blaze. She had a personal score to settle with the raccoon, but her main objective was Tails. It was the first time she'd actually seen Tails and although she knew the demon would look different, he was much smaller than she imagined. She was used to the red eyes that could kill with a glance, not innocent blue ones. And acting friendly towards a human? Kyuubi hated humans! This was the demon she was supposed to kill?

"For the sake of our future, I can't let you leave," Silver said again.

Suigetsu growled in exasperation. "Again with the future? Change your tune, man. If I have to hear about your pathetic future one more time…"

"Quiet, oaf!" Silver shouted back. "You weren't there. You don't understand what kind of tragedy that was for the world. For Blaze and for me."

"Of course I wasn't there!" he shouted. "It hasn't happened yet. And the only tragedy about it is that I wasn't the one who destroyed your damn future. If you think you've seen a hardcore future apocalypse, just wait until I find a way to get over there."

"Then I'll destroy you along with the Kyuubi," Silver turned back to Tails. "There's no escape, demon. No more distractions. We will finish this and end the horror once and for all."

Hinata had her gun to Silver's head now.

"Out of the way, human. This has nothing to do with you."

Hinata hated this. She hated that she had to hold this confused stranger at gunpoint. If she listened to Shadow's instructions, the silver hedgehog would already be lying dead on the floor with his blood leaking out of a smoking hole in his forehead. But she wasn't there yet, and couldn't imagine herself like that, but neither could she knuckle under while Tails-kun was being threatened.

"This has everything to do with me," Hinata's Byakagun bulged. "I'm a stranger in this world, just like you, but Tails-kun has shown me nothing but love and kindness, and you're trying to murder him."

"We're not murderers," Silver said. "We just want to save the future, to set everything right again."

"You're willing to blow up an entire region just to kill an innocent kid? And you want to know what's wrong with your future?" Hinata's finger shook on the trigger. She felt a sudden urge to blow him away.

"You humans will suffer the worst at his hands. You shouldn't be siding with him."

"I don't care. I'm going to protect my friend. That's what the future is really about."

"You shoot Silver and I'll bring this entire ship down in a fiery blaze." Blaze summoned a sphere of fire into her hand. Wasn't this the land she fell in love with on first sight? The wind carried the embers of destruction up to the clouds. It was looking more like their future every second.

"Burn my ship?" Marine jumped in, screaming. "Hell no! There'll be no weenie roasts on this ship if I have anything to say about it!"

"Better listen to the girl, mate." Suigetsu said, then caught himself. Great, now he was saying it. "This tyke can open up one hell of a can of whoopass."

"Try a whole case of whoopass! Or a whole ship load! No! I'm the CEO of the entire whoopass industry!"

Out of Marine's hand grew a green sphere of power. She hurled the orb at Blaze, colliding with her own fireball. The ensuing explosion blew that edge of the ship apart where she stood. Her unconscious body plummeted into the ocean.

With everyone distracted, Silver's telekinesis swiped Hinata's gun and brought it to his waiting hand. He yelled bitterly and charged into Tails, seizing him by the neck and smashing him against the ship's rails. He pressed the gun against the kit's temples, ready to fire.

"This is truly the end, demon. Any last words?"

"Your comrade is going to drown," Tails chocked the words out. "Aren't you going to save her?"

"Blaze?" his trigger finger hesitated.

"She's drowning in the ocean now. She'll die."

"Don't you dare mention her! She's dead now because of you. You're just trying to confuse me with another if your demon tricks. It won't save you."

Tails didn't dare move a muscle. He just shut his eyes tight. An electric jolt shot out of his head and out blew the gun apart. Silver yelped and staggered back, another surprise tail whip shoved him aside.

Tails dove off the ship. The hot winds blasted against his face. As he plunged down into the ocean, he realized just how big the drop really was.

Maybe Silver was right. If she didnlt die when hitting the ocean, the chances were slim that Blaze would still be alive. And even then, he would have to find her in time. Splashing into the ocean, Tails swam through a world of endless blackness. Judigng by how far she fell, Blaze must have gone down pretty far, and so Tails swam as deep as he could. He only knew how to doggy paddle, but he was damn good at it. He tried to feel for vibrations in the water to search for her, but it was mainly dumb luck that found Blaze, her unconscious body pulled into the deep by the ocean currents. Tails grabbed her hand and pulled her to the surface. He burst through the surface with still enough energy to fly her back to the airship. Soaking wet and panting with exhaustion, Tails dropped her onto the deck.

Blaze sputtered and coughed. "You. Why did you save me?"

Tails shrugged. "You're a cat and a fire user. You must hate water even more than Sonic." Blaze sat there, wringing the water out of her fur. For the moment everything looked calm. I guess this changes things now, huh?" Tails smied at her.

Blaze shook her head and shoved Tails "No. No, it won't." She had no strength left to make fire, but a hidden dagger sprang out of her cloak and into her hand. She moved to drive it through Tails' heart. It was a sloppy attack, born out of desperation and doomed to fail. Tails was all ready to flick it out of her hand, but the dagger ended up flinging out of her grip on its own and hovered in space, out of reach. At Silver's command.

"Let's go, Blaze. We're done here," Silver's tone was insistent.

"Silver…"

"It's not him. We must've found the wrong guy," he said simply.

"No. We know that's not true. We have all the evidence to prove it."

"If he's the demon, than he's more a more noble one than me. And if we kill him, then I deserve to die, too."

Now Blaze looked at him like he was crazy.

"I'm not worthy to protect you anymore, Blaze. I gave up on you," he said, downcast. "The demon is the one who brought you back from the brink of death. It can't be him."

"Silver, we—"

He placed the dagger pack into her hand and stepped back. "You're the princess, Blaze. It's your call. I will follow your orders to the end."

Blaze looked at Silver for a minute, then loosened up and sheathed the dagger back into the sleeve of her cloak. She turned to the kitsune and stared at him for the longest time, letting Silver's words sink in. This demon saved her. Simple as that. She closed her eyes, and bowed reverently.

"Thank you for saving me, Kitsune-san."

Tails smiled and scratched the back of his head. "I'm not used heavy duty titles, your highness. Just call me "Tails."

"The real enemy you spoke of. That creature we fought. What is their name?" Silver asked.

Tails' smile disappeared. "They're called the Akatsuki. They're hunting down demons to take over the world and create the kind of future you came from."

"We should investigate this, Blaze. We've never heard of these Akatsuki before."

"Hold up," Suigetsu stopped them. "Are you actually going to let these royal pricks get away after what they did?"

"Aw, they're not that bad."

"Not that bad? Hell, even Hinata here was brewing with killing intent to off those jerks," he noticed Hinata's face turning red. "Don't you blush like that, woman. I felt it."

"It's more enemies for Akatsuki. That's good for us." Tails said. "You guys could join us on our ship if you want."

"No," Blaze smiled and said. "Maybe it would do us some good to see more of this world. Let's go, Silver. Maybe we could even try and enjoy this world a little bit."

Suigetsu crossed his arms and scowled as the two of them flew off. "Hmph. They nuke your workshop and just say goodbye like we've been best friends forever. The way these things end sometimes…"

"I have a second workshop that's even more hidden," Tails said. "And I have versions of all my inventions and then some. I'll have to rethink the kind of power core I use this time though. We'll go there. After we get all healed up, that is."

"Yay!" Marine shouted with joy. "We actually know where we're going this time. That hardly ever happens. Now that we got that all over with, and we got a brand new crew rounded up, let's party! I got plenty of rum."

"I don't think that's such a great idea," Hinata said. "It would be best if we all had the chance to rest up."

Tails rubbed his chin, looking deep in thought. "It's true that I haven't gotten any rest in awhile, but it's also true that I haven't partied in awhile either."

"Yes!" Marine came over to Tails Oh, you are going to get so smashed, Mr. T. Just you wait."

A few hours later after retiring to the ship's cabin, the whole place was in chaos. Hinata was completely outvoted, leaving only herself and handful of Hinata Chao around to keep things under control.

The Naruto Chao went buzzing around everywhere, swinging on chandeliers and throwing food all over.

Tails' sat with several empty bottles sprawled out on the table in front of him. He stared into space, his head was swaying with big swirling circles in his eyes. Mumbling incoherently, he absently reached for an unopened bottle of sake.

Marine snatched the bottle away from him. "Uh-uh-uh, Mr. T. No sake for you until you finish your whiskey."

Tails collapsed off his chair and onto the floor.

Hinata could only watch and look worried. "Oh, poor Tails-kun is drunk again."

"Forget that. How the hell is that raccoon not drunk?" Suigetsu asked in wonder.

Marine shook her head and sighed. "You're a heck of a shinobi Mr. T, but you can't hold your liquor for nothing. Still," she glanced around the room at Hinata, polishing her new sword and Suigetsu staring at it enviously. "I think we're gonna make a great team."

**To Be Continued**


	21. The Island

**Hi, friends. I'm very happy and excited to present this next chapter. Thanks so much for your comments and critiques. Always a pleasure.**

**So, as the Joker likes to say, "And here...we...Go!"**

**Chapter XXI: Expedition to Orochimaru's Island**

Knuckles' fists were still sore from his titanic battle against Sakura-san a few weeks ago. He had to test his muscles, to make sure none of his strength had left him during those agonizing weeks of being bedridden in the hospital, eating through a straw.

But it was all worth it. Even with the grueling weeks ahead of rebuilding his lost strength.

To test his muscles, Knuckles lifted the mighty sword Kubikiri Houchi in one hand and examined it closely. Amy carelessly left it behind on the training grounds the other day. Just another example of how that hedgehog girl didn't understand the responsibility of wielding a weapon like this. Any sword that could easily crack the Master needed to be understood well and taken seriously. He had to admit though, that it didn't feel right in his hands. Knuckles' fists were made for punching, not sword swinging. Still, this was a weapon he could easily respect. He gazed into the blade's mirror like surface to examine his face, opening his mouth to inspect every single one of his teeth. Good. They were all there, Miraculously, none of them fell out during the fight. Or did these medic ninjas use a technique that reattached them? Either way, he was glad to see them all intact and that the massive swelling on his face was gone. The medic nins did their jobs well. Maybe it was even Sakura-san herself that nursed him back to health.

Sakura-san. The beautiful, deadly flower Sakura-san. The rematch would be soon. Surely if he could just punch her a little harder, he could win her love. That's how it always worked, right? Just knowing that he was in the same village as Sakura was enough reason to put up with the crap this weird village threw at him. Looking back into the sword's reflection Knuckles saw his own love struck face. Even he found it disturbing.

_"Walkers help me, do I really look like that? I'll have to do something about that if I want Sakura to take me seriously."_

"Knuckles, give me back my sword," Amy yelled, breaking him away from his revelry.

"I was inspecting it for you," Knuckles said, returning to his normal angry face. "You need to take care of your weapon more and not leave it lying around overnight."

"Well, it's heavy to haul it around everywhere," Amy retorted, "and I don't think most people can lift it."

"The edge is a little dull," he said pointing to the tip where it was scratched and chipped. "You might want to get it sharpened."

"It doesn't need sharpening, Knuckles. This is made out of the strongest material in the world."

"It better be," Shadow broke in. "It'd be nice if you could cleave our mission target in half with one stroke. I'd like to get this over with quickly. So if you're both ready…"

"Cleave it in half?" Amy made a grossed out face. "Eww. I don't want to get any blood on my sword."

"Then you should probably switch back to hammers. You can't seriously expect to wield a sharp weapon without getting blood on your hands."

"I can't switch back to hammers. Zabuza will get jealous, and he says I need to become an expert quickly because there ninjas out there who are gonna try and take the sword back."

"Good luck doing all that without making anyone bleed," Shadow said in a flat tone. "Just try not to stab yourself in the foot."

"We're bringing our target back alive anyways," Amy reminded him. "Tsunade will kill us if we screw this up."

"Tch. I was created to guard the entire planet, to destroy monsters and assassinate terrorists. How did I manage to sink so low to these worthless missions?"

"Angsting around like that won't capture our quarry," Knuckles said sternly. "This is the only way to earn the Hokage's trust and be permitted to begin our true mission."

Within minutes, the three of them went striding through the forest, leaping across the treetops, scanning for signs of their quarry below. After swiftly making his way around the forest's perimeter, Knuckles switched on to radio contact.

_Ksht "_Knuckles. Position A.___" __Ksht._

_Ksht _"Amy. I'm in Position B." ___Ksht._

They sat and waited for Shadow's voice to come in.

_Ksht _"Shadow, what's your position?" Amy shouted impatiently._ "_Shadow! Come in, Shadow."

"You don't have to tell me your position. I'm right across from you," Shadow growled. "In the same tree."

"You have to say your position. It's part of our formation. Just turn the thing on and say you're in position C. It's not that hard."

"Stop talking to me through the radio. I'm six feet away from you."

"You still have to follow the rules," Amy continued yelling into the radio. "What if something happened to you and you got killed by enemy ninjas?"

Shadow stared at her with a raised eye ridge. "Enemy ninjas? It's a D-Rank mission! Who's going to kill me?"

"I heard our enemy is very, very tough and there's a lot of Fire Country politics involved." Amy warned. "A lot of ninjas have tried to capture this one. Everybody says not to underestimate him."

Shadow snorted. "Huh? I'll show you just how tough it is. You see those bushes down there, ten meter's below us? Notice that rustling?"

"Yeah."

"That's our target. I'm sure of it." Shadow said.

"Then I'll go down there and grab it," Knuckles cracked his knuckles and prepared to dive. "I'll show you guys how a real capture is done."

No," Shadow grabbed his arm, pulling him back. "Aren't you still recovering from those wounds you took from Sakura? Maybe you'd better let me handle it."

"I think I can manage one stupid little—"

"Our enemy is known for escaping," Shadow cut him off. "Even if you're off by a millisecond, it could jeopardize the whole mission and we'll be out here all day."

"You think you're fast enough?" Knuckles asked.

"No one, no matter how fast, is a match for my chaos control," Shadow boasted. "Now here's my plan. Amy, ready your sword. On my signal, go down there and make one wide slash."

"You want me to attack with my sword? We're supposed to capture our target, not kill it."

"You're the one who wanted to be serious about this. Here's your chance. Our target will be fast enough to avoid your strike. Trust me. He'll jump out of his hiding place into the open, then I'll simply chaos control into his path and intercept him. Then we can end this stupid mission."

"All right. If that's the way you wanna do it," Amy lifted the sword off her back. The giant silvery blade gleamed with a bright green shine from the leaves refracted in the sunlight. Amy wrung her hands around the handle, drawing a rush of power from the soul of the sword. She dug her boots into the branches and sprang out. Her sword cleanly sliced the shrubbery away, kicking up dirt and scattering leaves and twigs into the wind.

Suddenly, the enemy made its move and jumped past Amy's head into the clearing. A flash of light burst into its path. Shadow emerged and tackled the creature to the ground.

"GOTCHA!"

"MRRROOOOWW!" the creature yowled. The cat extended its sharp claws and raked Shadow across the face in an attempt to break free.

"GAH! MY FACE!" Shadow screamed as the cat mercilessly clawed and scratched at his face and arms. "Shit! He's gonna kill me."

"On a D-Rank mission, no less. Must be really embarrassing, but I warned him he could get killed. Should we do something, Knuckles?"

"Relax. He dropped it," Knuckles said calmly

"It escaped!" Amy yelled and ran up to Shadow whose face bled with hundreds of claw marks. "You let it go, Shadow! Now we have to do this all over again."

"The hell we will," Shadow snarled, wiping the blood out of his face. He brought out his handgun and aimed.

"Shadow! No!" Amy screamed.

Too late. A gunshot rang out through the forest. Birds scattered from the treetops. The Cat flopped to the ground.

"Mission accomplished," Shadow blew the smoke away and twirled his gun around his fingers. "Let's head back and tell the Hokage the good news."

* * *

"OH! My poor Tora-chan!" the noble lady wailed as she pressed her beloved cat's head against her fat cheeks, nearly smothering it to death. Her over the top bawling reminded Shadow of a dying sperm whale. Fat globs of tears streamed down her face, smearing her mascara and soaking into Tora-chan's The cat gasped for air and flailed for his life. "My poor baby! What did those awful barbarians to do you, my poor sweet pussy poo!"

Tears filled Tora's eyes as he felt his ribs crushing under his owner flabby arms. Releasing her constrictor like hold on her cat, the woman turned towards Tsunade furiously. "Hokage-sama, I've never seen such brutal shinobi tactics before in all my life. Shooting my kitty in the leg like that with an automatic firearm? This never would've happened under any of the other Hokages. I am appalled at this treatment. Do you hear me? Appalled!"

Tsuande sat calmly behind her desk as the noble lady ranted away. With her hands clasped together, she merely bowed her head in apology, but that throb in her forehead could be seen from the moon. Tsunade didn't even open her eyes, for fear that she would kill the first person she saw.

"May husband will be furious," she went on, while the cat's face turned blue. "This is a rare cat, specially bred for royalty."

Shadow snorted. "Bred for royalty? Doesn't she mean genetically altered to be a mutant feral Hellcat?"

The noblewoman briefly tuned her fat face towards Shadow and stuck her nose in the air. "Come now, Tora-chan. Mommy will take you home now and make you a nice tuna ramen casserole."

"I feel sorry for the village that has to deal with her cat from now on," Shadow muttered as the woman stomped out. "Well, I could use some ramen myself. Let's call it day, shall we? I've never been this tired," Shadow started towards the door.

"Not. So. Fast." Tsunade's eyes flared open.

"What?"

"You really blew it this time, Shadow."

Shadow shrugged. "What's everyone so upset about? Shooting the cat? I barely nipped it in the leg. Now he can't escape anymore. The way I see it, I did everyone a favor."

Tsuande heaved a deep, deep sigh. "...Do you three know who that was?"

"A crazy cat lady? Who else?"

"That was Madame Shikimi. She's the Fire Daimyo's wife."

"And that's important because…?"

"The Fire Daimyo is the head of this entire country," Tsunade said. "I'm going to have to explain to him why his wife's cat was gunned down by Konoha shinobi."

"If it was such an important cat, then maybe you shouldn't have made it a D-Rank mission," Shadow said.

"Maybe I never should have appointed you genin in the first place," Tsuande countered. "If that cat never recovers, they might need to get a new one."

"Hey, Shadow," Amy piped up, "you look like you'd make a good kitty cat. Maybe you'll have to stand in as the Fire Lady's new Tora-chan. We could put a little red bow on your head and she could cuddle you to death."

Shadow's normally hardened eyes softened. "Maria…she used to put a bow on my head and cuddle me all night…" Shadow said, tears slowly welling up in his eyes.

"Uh…we're still getting paid, right?" Knuckles asked. Changing the subject could only improve the mood, he figured.

"Paid?" Tsunade asked, her eyes wide. "See this giant stack of papers? These are bills. Do you realize how much money in property damages you've cost the village since you landed here? You violated the Hokage monument, demolished the Ichiraku Ramen Bar, and I've never spent so much money on sake before in my life," she turned towards the corner where she displayed an impressive collection of empty sake jugs that piled up towards the ceiling. "When giant demons attacked the previous Hokages, they had it easy. If the Kyuubi came back today, I'd consider it a day off compared to managing you three."

After a moment of very uncomfortable silence, Shadow spoke. "You know what? It's the stress getting to you. Is this office environment always this high strung? Every time we come down here it's the same thing, the same retarded missions. You're wasting everyone's time including yours with these worthless assignments."

"Yeah! When are we going to look for Sonic?" Amy demanded.

"If you can't be trusted to complete a D-Rank mission, how can I trust you for the S ones?"

Shadow slammed both palms on the desk and leaned forward to the Hokage's face. "Because there we'll actually be doing something important."

"This is my job and the entire country depends on what goes in this tower," Tsunade slammed her palms on the desk. "The daimyo rely on this village to keep the country safe and secure."

"You're the Hokage. You don't have to waste your life surrounded by paperwork until the day your boobs start sagging. Tell the damn daimyos to fuck off."

"Oh, believe me I'd love to," she muttered under her breath. "I'd _love to," she stifled a smile. Her Inner Tsunade was starting to agree with Shadow, but now was not the time to let him know that._

"See? This is why I'm glad I never became Hokage," someone said behind her. Tsunade groaned. She had no need to look behind her to know that it was Jiraiya, relaxing by the window ledge.

"No. You just decided you could throw that dinky hat at me while you run off to your sleazy pile of women and money."

Jiraiya continued to lazily puff smoke form his long pipe. "And most people think that becoming Hokage is the fastest path to that kind of life." Jiraiya laughed. "Ha! If only they knew."

Tsuande resisted the urge to throw her sake bottle at the Toad Sannin and knock him out of the tower. "Why do you always perch yourself by my window like that?"

"You really need to take advantage of this window," Jiraiya said, looking into his research telescope. "This place has the best view of the hot springs. I think I see Sakura going in now. Yes, she just removed her towel. Now she's smearing oil all over her silk smooth skin."

"Where? Let me see!" Knuckles leaped towards the window and tried to yank the telescope from the sannins' hands.

"Let, go. You'll never get any ladies with that misshapen face of yours!"

"Yeah? Take a look in the mirror, you wart faced toad freak."

"Enough!" Tsuande snapped. "Get lost, you old fool. Can't you see that you're not helping things at all?"

Jiraiya collapsed his telescope and looked at her old partner seriously. "Then I'd better get to the point of why I'm here. I have information on Orochimaru. I know where his secret hideout is. I know where you can find Sonic. I know everything."

"Where is it?"

"It's on an island to the northwest far off the borders of the Five Countries," Jiraiya said.

"A far away island in the middle of the ocean?" Shadow asked. "Ha! Sonic has no chance of escaping form there."

"Quit it, Shadow," Amy punched him in the arm. "Have more faith in Sonic. He could get out of almost any situation. Even if he's stuck in the middle of the ocean."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Right, I should never have doubted the power of the great Sonic the Hedgehog. Or should I call him "Instant Pussy: Just Add Water."

"That's enough, you two," Tsunade grumbled. "Jiraiya. Please tell us more about this island."

"They call the place…Ilha de Queimada Grande."

"I've never heard of it before," Tsunade said.

"It translates roughly as "The Burnt Island," and it's home to the most aggressive, most venomous snakes in the world and the most densely packed one at that. I'm talking about roughly five snakes per every square meter. One snakebite can send a venom burning through your veins so potent that it can melt the flesh off your bones. Fishing boats that sail too close are always found the with the decks awash in blood. Don't expect to get any sleep on that island. You'll be massacred in the night. You can't eat or drink anything because the venom will find a way into your food and water. And God help you if you have try to have sex on that island, because once you start-"

"Stop right there, Jiraiya. I think they get the point. Anyway, it's clear that Orochimaru doesn't plan on holding anything back this time. We will need to send in a rescue mission using our best jonin."

"Actually, I think we should send our Mobian friends down there," Jiraiya suggested.

"Absolutely not! Tsuande yelled. "I won't allow it."

Jiraiya held up his hands, making a calming gesture. "Come now, Tsunade. They went through a lot of trouble to take the long trip here just to save Sonic and they all have their own scores to settle with Orochimaru. It would be dishonorable to leave them behind at this point."

Tsunade waved her hand dismissively. "They can't complete a D-Rank mission without something going wrong. Forget it."

"Can't argue with that. So let me make a bet with you," Jiraiya offered. "Let's split this gang up, give them each individual trainers that will best support their abilities. Give them two weeks training time. I will oversee everything. I'll bet you that in that time, they will form the perfect cell to join our rescue team. You'll practically be begging them to enter the top jonin ranks. "

Tsunade leaned over to him, intrigued. "Who did you have in mind?"

"First, Amy Rose," Jiraiya began. He reached over to her and cupped her hands in his own. "I can see it in those beautiful eyes. You are a very special girl."

Amy immediately broke away. "S-stay away from me, you nasty pervert! I heard all about you."

"Eh? You think I…No! No way! You think I'm interested in you in that kind of way? You're a hedgehog."

"So? That doesn't stop Knuckles…"

"Knuckles is a filthy degenerate!" Jiraiya bellowed. "I am a man of chivalry, class and taste!"

"I'm standing right here, you know," Knuckles pointed out.

"Hehehe...man of chivalry...Ha!" Tsunade broke out laughing for the first time all day. "Ignore him, Knuckles. He doesn't know what he's talking about."

"What I meant was that you, Amy, have tremendous potential to be a great shinobi," the Toad Sage said, "and I will show you how to make it all happen. Summon the ANBU."

A smoke cloud burst into the room and a squadron of masked ANBU ninjas now in the doorway. One of them was a woman with strikingly long purple hair wit ha long sword strapped to her back.

"Uzuki Yugao is one of the finest swordswomen in the ANBU," Jiraiya said. "She will help you master the skills of your zanbatou."

"Do I have to wear one of those funny masks, too?" Amy asked.

"If you're worthy, you just might," Yugao replied, "but we'll worry about that later."

"The ANBU are a secretive clandestine group," Jiraiya continued, "so they aren't known for talking. This is good for you, Amy. It will teach you the discipline of silence."

Amy puffed her cheeks up angrily. "What makes you think I need to learn about silence?"

Someone threw another smoke bomb into the room. The ANBU vanished and took Amy with them.

"She's taken care of," Jiraiya now turned to Knuckles. "Knuckles, it wasn't hard figuring out who should be training you. Clearly, you need a real taijutsu master."

Knuckles huffed. "Hungh. You really think one of you humans can teach me something about fighting?"

the Toad Sannin nodded. "Yes. He should be on his way."

"DYYNAMIIIC ENTRYYY!" The office doors burst off their hinges and crashed to the ground. When the dust settled, Maito Gai stood heroically with such an egregious thumbs up, that it would be imprinted in Knuckles' mind forever.

Shadow crossed his arm, looking deliberately unimpressed. "Just who the hell taught this guy taijutsu? The Kool-Aid man?"

"Jiraiya-sama!" Gai's voice boomed. "My youthful ears have indicated that I have been chosen for the task of recruiting the honorable warrior Knuckles-san, to train him in the ways of the Green Beast."

"This guy should've been the one joining the ANBU," Shadow remarked.

Knuckles' face gave a trapped expression. "I don't like where this is going."

"Prepare yourself, Knuckles-san. Soon, soon, the green beast will rise from within the red warrior," Gai spoke with tears of passion cascading down his face. "You will burst from your hideous shell and be reborn."

Jiraiya grimaced at what he was hearing. _"Talk about the teapot calling the kettle black.__What hideous form will this echidna take once given that atrocious bowl cut? Maybe this was a bad idea. Ah well, as long as they fight well, who cares what they look like. More girls for me."_

"I think I'll pass," Knuckles said, looking more than a little uncomfortable. "I'm used to training by myself."

"Knuckles, listen to me carefully," Gai bent down and placed his hand on Knuckles' shoulder. "You have been isolated on a single island your entire life, away from the liberating winds of freedom and the shining rays of youth. The world is so much bigger than any of us can comprehend. There are so many hidden techniques that we must learn. Join me and together we will test each other's strengths

"I don't know," Knuckles shrunk back." I'd better take some time to meditate over this."

"An excellent suggestion, Knuckles-san!" Gai exclaimed. "Let us retreat to my training dojo hidden high in the mountains. We will gaze into the sunrise and the sunset everyday. There, we will contemplate the gift youth in all its glory, its fleeting, yet eternal beauty. We will pierce the heavens and draw down the all powerful cosmic energies to infuse our techniques."

"I was actually thinking of meditating by myself," Knuckles said.

"Nonsense! Remember that no man, no echidna, is an island," Gai insisted.

"No, I'm pretty sure I'm an island. I've always been one."

"Then today is the day you will rise and transform into a completely different geomorphologic unit! Come! There's not a moment to lose. DYNAMIC ENTR—wait," Gai stopped himself mid-kick. "We can't use an entry move if we're leaving."

"So? Just call it a Dynamic Exit. What's the big deal?"

"A brilliant suggestion, Knuckles." You see? It's been only a moment and already, we've broke so much ground. Please, Knuckles, I implore you to exit dramatically. Do not let any restraints interfere!"

"If you say so," Knuckles shrugged, then smashed the Hokage's desk to pieces. Piles of papers flew out of the window and spilled into the streets.

"Ma paperwork!" Tsunade tried to futilely grab hold of whatever she could.

"Never mind the petty details, Hokage-sama," Gai said. "The times of greatness are on the horizon. Let us be off, Knuckles. Destiny awaits!"

"I really hate that man…" Tsunade murmured. "Shizune! I want these doors reinforced. Make them completely Gai proof!"

"He's still one of our best, and you can't say I didn't make a great match," Jiraiya said proudly. "Gai can only improve him. But now that just leaves Shadow here. Now I'm sure you're wondering, 'How can we possibly find a sensei who can teach the Ultimate Life form?"

"…" Shadow replied.

"Shadow, I think out of all you Mobians, with your incredible gift of chakra control, you have the greatest potential for medical jutsu. Tsuande would make an excellent mentor for you."

"Forget it! It's never happening." Tsunade swore.

"Very well. Shadow, let's step outside this dusty office for a second and give the Hokage some space," he said as he led Shadow into the hall. "I knew she'd refuse, so I had a backup. I have someone in mind who I think can really channel your offensive abilities."

"Why would I need any help with that?" Shadow demanded.

Jiraiya handed him a slip of paper. "These instructions will tell when and where you will meet your sensei. Please go. I promise you that you will learn much."

"Aren't you going to give me a name?"

The Toad Sage merely flashed him a cryptic smile. "You'll find out when you get there. This one likes to give things a sense of mystery."

Shadow glanced at the instructions before him, then turned to Jiraiya with a puzzled look. "The Forest of Death? What kind of a lame name is that?"

Jiraiya nodded. "Yes. You can't call yourself a real Konoha shinobi until you've visited that forest. Don't let the name fool you, though. It's nothing the Ultimate Life Form can't handle. Am I right?"

"Hn. Let's just see what you humans think you can teach me about ninjutsu. Chaos Control." A flash of light and the hedgehog was gone.

Jiraiya stepped past where Shaow just stood back into the office to find Tsunade tirelessly trying to pick up pieces of the mess. She looked up and met her fellow sannin with her harshest death glare.

"Don't look at me like that," Jiraiya said innocently. "I just took away a major headache of yours. You should be thanking me."

"I think your making a big mistake," Tsunade said, leaning back in her seat. "You will get them all killed. And Sonic, too."

"I don't think so. Those guys came down here for a reason."

Tsunade allowed herself a smile. "You sound really confident in them."

"Because you never won a bet in your life. Of course I'm confident. Don't forget, I have Naruto up my sleeve as well. He'll be ready soon, by the way. Now if you didn't slug down that whole bottle, let's share a drink. A toast, to me winning this bet, but most importantly, I think we're going to make ninja history."

"I still think this could turn into a disaster," Tsuande said glumly as she turned towards the window. Below, she saw that Yugao was down by the courtyard beginning her training with Amy.

"Here, Amy. These are special chakra papers that can tell you what your favored element will be."

Amy touched the small paper. Suddenly, a blast of wind that grew into a hurricane with her all around. Tsunade shrieked as all her paperwork flew out the window and into the to sky to be lost forever.

"WOO HOO! The power of Wind! I'm all-powerful now! Swirl, mighty winds! Hahahah!" Amy laughed manically and stabbed the sky with her sword.

Tsunade slapped her forehead. "This better work."

* * *

A vast empty wasteland awaited him Naruto stood by the canyon entranceway to Sunagakure and looked out wistfully at the setting sun. The cloudless sky turned into a deep orange. The winds were much cooler now, perfect time to set off on a journey.

"So you're leaving now, I see," Gaara said, calmly walking over towards him.

"Yeah. I have to," Naruto said. "I've spent enough time training. I have to help Ero-Sennin find more chaos emeralds."

"What is that?" Gaara eyed the strange looking machine that Naruto was leaning on. It was some kind of vehicle, shiny as hell, painted in blood red and orange colors. Along the length of it, snaking towards the back, he noticed the design of nine fox tails. The head was adorned with the lifelike sculpting of the Kyuubi.

"That's right. I ever showed it to you. This is my motorcycle. I built it myself." Naruto beamed with pride. "Awesome, isn't it?"

"You really built it? Kankuro didn't help you?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, but he was pretty pissed about me hogging his workshop. He made big deal about some small fires I set off, and something about spilling oil all over the place."

"It's very impressive," said Gaara, running his hand along the bike's smooth surface, noticing his reflection among all the pipes and tubes. "I didn't know that this was one of your talents."

"It wasn't," Naruto admitted. "This is a new thing. I got the inspiration from my chaos emerald training. When I would meditate with my emerald, the chaos energy would rush to my brain and I would get these flashes of insight. The designs for this just popped into my head. It's based on a Kyuubi possessed motorcycle I rode back on Mobius. Since I couldn't take the thing back with me, I decided to make my own."

"And you did this all in your spare time?" Gaara asked. "I never thought you had the head for this kind of thing."

Naruto snorted. "Hey, I'm not that dumb. You're right, though. It takes a guy with a seriously huge brain to build the right stuff. Luckily, I had some help," a little fuzzy orange and white fox-like creature with big blue eyes and two little tails poked its head out from under the bike. He waved his little paw, greeting Gaara with a big happy smile.

"Hey, he likes you," Naruto grinned at the little fox then back at Gaara. "His name is Tails Chao. He says he's a chao and he's a creature made out of chaos energy. They show up whenever chaos emeralds are near. Isn't he awesome?"

"Naruto, you should've informed me when otherworldly beings appear in the village," Gaara said, his eyes and voice grew slightly cold.

"Yeah, you're right," Naruto said, nervously scratching the back of his head. "But don't make such a mean face over it. You're scaring Tails Chao."

"Chao, chao," went the Tails Chao, his big soft eyes started quivering.

"Is that all he says? How can you understand him?"

"If you're skilled with chaos energy, you can feel the vibes the chao give off," Naruto explained. "He acts just like the real Tails, too. He's just as smart."

"It's very good that he helped you obtain the gift of mechanics now, though."

"Yeah, I guess that makes me a machinist now," Naruto said, grinning. He liked the sound of that title. "I could even build a motorcycle for you too, if you want. We could be biker buddies."

"Some other time. I don't usually have time for those things."

Naruto started to grin. "You know, the villagers have teen talking about their Kazekage should ride around the village in his very own pimpmobile."

Gaara looked at him quizzically. "Tell me, what distinguishes this pimpmobile from all other vehicles?"

"Gaara, any vehicle you ride in is automatically considered a pimpmobile. But I can build you a really sick ride."

"Perhaps when things quiet down between the Five Nations," Gaara said. "All the villages are nervous about Orochimaru's uprising and the matter of these hidden chaos emeralds."

"They won't be hidden for long," Naruto promised. "Tails Chao isn't just a cute pet. He's a living Chaos beacon. He tells me where to find these emeralds. Right now, he says I should travel southwest through the desert towards some old ruins. You know of anything out there?"

Gaara frowned and paused a long moment for saying anything. "The only thing you'll find in that direction is Sasori's old workshop."

"Sasori? You mean that Akatsuki puppet master?" That was pretty much the only thing Naruto knew about Sasori. That, along with the fact that he was dead. The guy killed himself in the middle of his last battle. Naruto had never fought that member of Akatsuki, but Sakura told him everything about their battle. The guy was a real sicko. Makes sense when you're Orochimaru's partner.

Gaara nodded gravely. "His hideout has been abandoned ever since he joined the Akatsuki. It's been laying out in the desert wasteland for years."

"And nobody bothered to ransack the place?" Naruto asked. "There must be tons of crazy ninjutsu secrets out there."

"The people of the Wind Country dare not go near there. Remember that was the place Sasori took the Third Kazekage to be killed and turned his body into a puppet. Many harsh memories continue to linger there under the Red Sands. Tales say that the place is haunted."

Naruto suddenly lost all feeling in his legs and leaned over his bike, color vanishing from his face. "Why did you have to tell me that, man? You know I hate ghosts."

"I didn't say the rumors are true. Just that this is what people believe. In any event, it's still a dangerous place. The wind blows much harder and sharper, enough to slice through human flesh. No animals will go near. No plants, not even cacti can grow there. The land sits under a constant blood red sky. It is a realm saturated with evil chakra."

"I'm still going," Naruto said, making a fist. "Tails Chao says there's chaos emerald activity down there. Somebody's gotta get it."

"Then let me give you something before you go. Here, take this coat, It will protect you from the harsh desert winds," Gaara presented him with a long brown coat, exactly identical to the one he was wearing.

"Uh, thanks," Naruto threw it on. "I never knew you had a spare."

"I have a whole closet full, and I always carry an extra one in case it's damaged."

"It's a personal parting gift from me," Gaara said. "And as a gift on behalf of the entire village, I present you with this ceremonial sand gourd."

"Whoa? Is this just like your sand gourd with the demon sand in it and everything?"

"No. I didn't think you'd be the type to want to wield such powers. This gourd is merely ceremonial, a symbol of triumph to heroes of the village."

Naruto slung the gourd over his back and felt it weigh him down much more than he expected. "It's heavy. What did you put in here?"

"Candy."

"Uh-huh. Hey, Gaara, I got your coat and your gourd now. I think I'm starting to look like someone I know."

"One more thing," Gaara pulled out a rubber stamper and pressed it against Naruto's forehead.

"Should I guess what that stamp on my head says?"

"I think you know," Gaara pointed to his own "Love" kanji above his eye.

"You're a real freak, Raccoon boy," Naruto wiped the kanji off his forehead. "Sorry, but I'm not one of your loopy fan girls."

"Then I guess we will part ways now," Gaara said and started to turn back to his village.

"Wait a sec, Gaara, you wanna come with me? I could use some company."

"I don't like to talk that much," Gaara admitted. "You'll just find my company boring. Besides, I have important Kazekage duties to attend."

Naruto sighed dejectedly. "Man, I knew you'd say that. I really don't want to go to these haunted ruins alone. Oh, well, I guess it's just you and me, Tails Chao."

Gaara bowed his head to Naruto. "Don't worry so much about the ghosts," he said as he turned away.

"Yeah. Sure..." Naruto hopped onto and his motorcycle roared to life for the first time and kicked up a furious sand cloud as he tore a pathway through the barren desert, leaving a trail of fire in his wake.

* * *

It was well past midnight when Shadow made his way deep into the dark heart of the forest. The instructions Jiraiya gave him sent him to the place where the trees were thickest and the foliage densest. A rolling fog crept along the forest floor and wrapped around the trees. The trees pressed closer together the further he went and the fog grew thicker. Shadow found himself in a place of perpetual darkness, save for a few shafts of silvery moonlight that broke through the leaves. There was no point in going further any further, he realized.

"So this is The Forest of Death," Shadow said to himself. A chill wind blew the mist through him, dampening his fur to an uncomfortable level. He wasn't in the mood to meet with anyone. Whoever was supposed to show up better had a damn good reason for putting him up to this.

"Welcome, Shadow-kun," a voice echoed from the trees, "to the Forest of Death."

"Show yourself," Shadow commanded the unseen voice. His eyes darted back and forth, scanning for any signs of someone nearby. He slowly circled the area; ears keen on picking up every forest sound. The tree branches were rustling in the wind, but then he heard a low hissing sound. The vines came to life as slithering snakes descended from the treetops.

Dozens of snakes slithered down the trees, exposing their forked tongues and bearing their fangs. Amidst the writhing coils of snakes, a young woman, clearly their master, smiled eerily down at him. The snakes wrapped themselves close together in formation to create a makeshift throne for their mistress. Her legs kicked back and forth playfully as the snakes slowly lowered her down to the ground.

"Let me once again have the honor of personally welcoming you to the Forest of Death," she said. Then her smile darkened. "My Forest."

"Hn. And you are…?" Shadow asked in disinterested tone. He realized right away what kind of game she was playing. This girl was worse than Maito Gai.

"Mitarashi Anko!" she announced in a peppy voice as she hopped off her snake throne. Her long brown coat flapped behind her in the chilly winds. It was the only recognizable piece of clothing she wore except for a tiny orange miniskirt tightly wrapped around her. "I'm the leader of Konoha's Infiltration and Reconnaissance Party—Oh Hell! Look at all those cuts on your face and arms!" she recoiled in disgust. "They told me you had some serious emo issues, but I never thought you'd be pathetic enough to actually cut yourself."

"What? No! I'm not an emo!" Shadow protested. "This was done by a cat."

"Denial, I see," Anko said, rolling her eyes. "God, I hate emos. I can't stand those whiny bastards. Everything's gotta be a major catastrophe."

"Hey, you got the wrong idea about this..." Shadow tried to say.

"Listen, ninja psychology isn't my specialty. You'll have to go to Ibiki for that. I'm not fit to talk about your mental problems. I'd probably just make them worse."

"Then why should I even bother with you?"

"Because it'll be fun," Anko said. "Here's how it's gonna work. The two of us are gonna train for awhile If you survive, we can celebrate over some nice dango. If you don't survive, then my snakes will feast on whatever's left of your mangled corpse and fertilize your sorry ass for my forest. After all, if you can't pass my tests, then you have no chance against Orochimaru, and there's really no reason to keep you around then, is there?"

At the mention of the Snake Lord's name, Shadow tensed, a move that Anko noticed immediately. "What do you know about Orochimaru?"

"I see that got you interested. Well, I was Orochimaru's apprentice once. He taught me everything about snakes. I'm very sorry that he showed his face on Mobius and gave you as much shit as he did. He must have put you and your friends through some serious suffering."

"I've met worse people."

Anko's mischievous smile turned into a killer stare as she grabbed Shadow by his chest fur and pulled him close. "No you haven't. I promise you…you haven't."

Looking into Anko's pupil-less eyes told Shadow that this was not an ordinary human. There was nothing special about her power wise, but when Shadow looked into her eyes, he could tell that this girl was crazy. Very crazy.

"So, how are you going to help me kill him?" Shadow asked, pushing her arms away. "That is why you're here, right?"

"By introducing you to some of the tactics you can expect him to use and by refining your fighting skills. I know you're crazy strong as far as raw power goes, but you're really lacking by shinobi standards, and we need to adjust your attitude. I know your type, Shadow-kun. I'll straighten you just right."

"Hn. There's nothing wrong with my attitude. It hardly needs any straightening out, and there's nothing you know about me."

"That's fine. There's only one thing I really need to know about you, anyway," Anko replied.

"Yeah? What's that?"

"I want to know…" With a devilsh smirk, Anko vanished from sight only to reappear right beside him with a hand gripping his shoulder.

"…What your blood tastes like," she whispered into his ear.

A kunai flashed from her hand, cut through the fog and grazed Shadow's cheek. Shadow look too surprised to react. Anko's smirk widened as she disappeared back into the safety of the fog, leaving Shadow stunned.

"So this is the blood of the Ultimate Life form," Anko studied the blood that glistened on her kunai. She ran her tongue along the blade and licked a drop off slowly to savor the taste of blood. "Very nice. It's got a strong kick you don't often taste in humans."

Shadow held his hand to his bleeding face, his eyes went wide with surprise and anger. It wasn't the pain that bothered him.

It was so damn easy for her. Nobody ever had such and easy time landing a blow, any kind of blow, even a measly scratch against him.

"It's the last drop of blood you'll get from me," Shadow growled. "And you're going to pay for it with a gallon of your own."

Anko yawned and relaxed her back against the tree while playing with kunai in between her hands. "You're getting awfully worked up over a simple nick on the cheek," she said. "Not every little offense needs to evoke your killing intent. Doing that doesn't show power. It just shows a terrible lack of character."

"I don't need to be lectured by some human who managed a lucky strike against me," Shadow said icily.

Anko leaned her head back and laughed. "Oh, you make me laugh, Shadow-kun. In a non-funny kind of way, that is. It's just so sad how your whole style reeks of the lame and tired conventions that aim desperately to make you look like a badass."

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you should stop putting on airs of superiority by wearing that same disdainful scowl and throwing violent threats around all the time. I'm sure all that glowering and posing can scare people for a little while, but at the end of the day, you just come off as a pretentious prick. Chill out already. You're not the only one around here with a dead best friend."

"Do you have any idea how stupid it is for a human like you to talk to me like that?" Shadow asked, his voice dangerously low.

"I talk to whoever I want, whenever, however I want," Anko said flippantly. "Here, in Konoha, we don't respect power and techniques, and we don't to intimidation."

"You got me by surprise that time, but you'll never get another chance. I practically let you scratch me. No human can even comprehend how fast I truly am."

Excuses excuses…" Anko said in a ho hum tone. "If I'm sent to kill someone, it doesn't matter whether they let me do it or not. I still win. I accomplish the mission."

"I would shut up by now if I were you. Your chakra level can't even come close to a fraction of the amount of chaos energy that runs through me. I could vaporize you just by thinking about it. I could crush you and all you snakes with my bare hands."

Anko groaned. "How much longer are you going to go on about that? This isn't a martial arts match up. Winning isn't done by flexing muscles and measuring power levels. I don't care if your chaos powers have reached 9000 to 90000000 or whatever. You can pull out as many firearms out of your ass as you like, it won't make any difference. Your strength and your powers won't guarantee victory. Your inflated sense of self-importance is enough to bring you down."

Shadow's red eyes boiled with rage. "What are you babbling about, human? If you have some sort of death wish..."

"I'm not being very convincing am I? All right, enough talk. Come and kill me," Anko said suddenly. "Let's see what you can do with your little chaos spear you like to throw around so much."

"You're going to wish you never said that," Shadow's hand charged with lethal yellow light.

"That's it. Look at my perfectly exposed chest," Anko rubbed her hands over her light netted bodysuit that wasn't offering any protections as far as Shadow could tell. "Come on, hedgie-boy. Fry me."

"Chaos Spear!" A huge lightning bolt flashed in the dark forest and surged straight towards the snake girl.

**"Sennai Jashu!" ****(Hidden Snake Hands) **Anko shouted back and launched her snakes from her sleeves.

They fired off their techniques simultaneously. Shadow's energy spear collided with Anko's snakes and exploded. Snake guts rained down splattered into Shadow's eyes. "My eyes!" Shadow roared. The snake blood stung like acid, burning into the back of his eye sockets. Shadow's vision was obscured by a pink mist. The last thing he saw clearly was Anko's psycho slasher smile.

"Heh. What a horrible death for my snakes. Their friends will have to take revenge on you for cruelly blowing them up, Shadow."

Another hidden snake from her sleeve lashed out, sharp cruel fangs punctured Shadow's neck. He instinctively grabbed the serpent by its neck and yanked it out.

"Just another scratch," Shadow said calmly as he stood up and wiped the burning blood from his eyes. "Haven't you heard that the Ultimate Life form is immune to toxins of any kind?"

"Brag while you can," Anko said, avoiding the gaze of Shadow's horrific bloodshot eyes. "You won't feel like doing it once the venom freezes your blood in place and blocks the flow of chakra and chaos energy. You won't be throwing around any of those chaos spears anymore. Soon, the venom will go to your head and you'll be lying on the ground, curled up into a little ball, weeping and writing horrible emo poetry about what a miserable unfair life you've led. You will curse this cruel world until your last tortured breath."

"How many times do I have to say it? I'm the Ulti…mayte…Lifvgfrom," Shadow frothed at the mouth as his words slurred unintelligibly He lost focus and staggered like a drunkard until he fell to his knees.

"No..my body'z immune to all toxins. How…?"

"Don't you think we already know that?" Anko said, exasperated. "You freaking advertised your status as the Ultimate freaking Life form on the Hokage's freaking chest! We've been preparing for you."

Anko continued to nonchalantly explain everything as Shadow's body went into a seizure, jerking around sporadically.

"Pay attention while your brain cells still function. Our research team has been in possession of a chaos emerald for months were mainly using it to figure out where the other chaos emeralds would be hiding, but then I asked them if we could make this potent neurotoxin infused with chaos energy. Take a closer look at my snakes, Shadow-kun."

Shadow saw that the snakes that hung from her sleeves were staring at him with glowing red eyes, hissing and baring their hollow fangs that dripped with venom.

"You're still very resistant, I'll give you that," Anko said. "I don't think you'll die. In fact, It looks to me like you can still fight even in your state. By now, we should be about equal in strength and speed. I'm going to leave now. If you want to make it out of this forest, you'll have to catch me." She retreated into the fog still displaying her psychotic smile.

"What a showoff," Shadow muttered wiping the blood and foam from his mouth. He stretched his limbs, regaining control of his body. "She forgot that I have rocket shoes."

Shaking off the effects of the snake bite as much as he could, Shadow crouched low to the ground. His vision was still blurry, but he saw shapes dancing through he fog. It was Anko rising to the tree tops. The jets in his shoes fired and Shadow took off in pursuit.

His rocket shoes exploded, sending a screaming Shadow fireballing down head first into a heavy tree trunk. He stuck his heads out of the hole, his face sticky with sweet sap and blood. As soon as he got up, there was Anko, smiling down at him smugly with her arms folded across her chest. She was shaking a little bit and chuckling, trying hard not to burst out laughing.

"Looks like you don't have chaos vision to help you spot the exploding tags I slipped onto your shoes," Anko said, shaking her head sadly. "That's too bad. I even wrote "Fuck you, angst-hog!" in big red letters and you still didn't notice it? For shame."

"If this exercise was too much for you, then there's no way in Hell you'll make it out of Orochimaru's deathtrap island alive," Anko said. "You want to kill him? You want to take back the chaos emeralds and save mankind to honor your dead girlfriend's wishes? Or are you just going to let Orochimaru wipe out everyone in the world using your own power?"

"Would you just shut up?" Shadow shot up and raised his fists to the sky. The golden bands on his arms broke away. An intense burst of light engulfed the hedgehog, forcing Anko to shield her eyes. The pressure almost threatened to tear the coat right off her skin. Shadow formed a globe of white hot pulsating energy in his hands and launched it straight for the snake ninja. The forest trees burst into flames, erupting into an uncontrollable blaze.

After the initial shock, Anko watched the growing forest inferno and smiled with admiration. "Oh, man. Tsuande-sama's gonna be pissed about this one. Maybe we can make a new kind of chuunin testing regimen. Survive the Forest of Fiery Death. Yes. I like that," she turned towards Shadow. "I've gotta hand it to you, hedgie-boy. I never saw it coming. Overcoming the chakra blockage like that and torching the forest is my kind of thing. I'm thinking I'm starting to like you, Shadow-kun."

"Screw you, you psychotic bitch," Shadow's golden super form died away and he collapsed into the murky earth in a smoky heap. This time, he didn't get back up.

"If he was at full power, he might have destroyed the entire village," Anko said quietly to herself. "Come on, let's go to the hospital and get you an antidote," she lifted Shadow up and threw him over her shoulder. She swung away while the forest came burning down around them.

* * *

When a powerful shinobi dies, he leaves a good portion of his chakra behind in this world. A remnant of his powerful will, it reshapes the place where he once lived, transforming it into an image that reflects the soul of the shinobi. Naruto understood this well when Konoha's beloved Sandaime Hokage sacrificed his life. Visiting his gravesite, Naruto and anybody else in the village could tell you about the warmth and the calming presence that permeated the Hokage monument with the Will of Fire.

But now, Naruto came to visit the haunts of a different person entirely. He was now in the domain of the Scorpion of the Red Sand, the puppet master, Sasori. Swirling black clouds that rumbled with thunder and constant flashes of lightning dominated the landscape under a bleak red sky. The winds howled uncontrollably, biting against Naruto's exposed skin. Tails Chao huddled tightly within the folds of his cloak. Spotting Sasori's lair, even through the sandstorms was easy. Directly above it, the sky formed a whirling black maelstrom of pure evil chakra. Naruto could feel Tails Chao shaking, holding to tightly to his chest.

"Don't be scared, Tails Chao," Naruto said gently and ruffled the little fox chao's fur. "I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."

Naruto hopped off the bike and slowly approached the ruins. Scorpions crawled out of their holes from every direction, their black claws were wet from a fresh kill and glistened under the eerie sunlight.

"Shit, Gaara should've mentioned something about not wearing open toed shoes," Naruto said. He never knew if scorpions had eyes or not, but he knew he was being watched, The second he got within a foot of the entrance, the army of scorpions crawled towards him.

"Chao!" Tails Chao flew into the air, raised his tiny paws and unleashed a ring of blue fire that scorched the ground. Those scorpions caught in the flame were instantly turned to ashes. The rest of them skittered back into their lairs.

"Fox fire!" Naruto exclaimed. "I knew you could kick ass. Now we can—oh, crap."

The ground cracked open, the sands shifted and swirled around as a giant scorpion rose up, snapping its claws big enough to easily tear Naruto in half. It swiped its stinger past Naruto's face. Naruto ducked under its second strike, then somersaulted out of its range. He kept one eye on the chao the whole time.

"Is your fox fire strong enough to take it out?"

"Chao…" Tails Chao vigorously shook his head.

"Didn't think so. Don't worry, buddy," Naruto patted the fox chao on the head. "I got this one."

Despite the stinger waving inches from his face and the swirling sands threatening to suck him down, Naruto closed his eyes and stood calmly. He passed his hands around each other in an ancient Tai Chi style. With a slight wave of his hand, an invisible blade of air sliced the scorpion's body clean in half. There was no resistance. No sound. Anyone watching would have thought the thing

Naruto stepped carefully past the scorpions carcass and descended the staircase down into Sasori's old workshop. Tails Chao hovered in front of him, shrouded in an aura of blue flame that lit the way for them. The musky scent of stale, putrid air assaulted Naruto's sense. Sasori's workshop turned out to be an old crypt remodeled into a laboratory. The aged stone walls held shelves of flasks filled with embalming fluids. Worn out old puppet parts were strewn across the floor. In the center of the lab stood a pair of metal operating tables with rusted broken shackles, stained with old crusted blood. This must've been the place where Sasori turned dead corpses into deadly puppets.

Tails Chao zipped around the puppet master's workshop, shedding his blue light into all the nooks and crannies. He searched through all the racks of potions and stopped and stared wide eyed at a large glass tube in the back of the lab. There was a brain inside, afloat in a translucent green goo. Tails Chao stared at it transfixed and the brain seemed to stare right back at him with a pair of eyeballs attached to it by its optic nerves.

Naruto scowled and wrinkled his nose at the wrinkled gray glob with its eyeballs floating around. He noticed it was a pretty big brain, so it must have belonged to someone really smart. "Tails Chao, leave the brain alone. I think it's looking at us. "Let's find the emerald and get out of this dump as soon as we can."

Tails Chao continued to inspect the jar until he found a tiny switch in the wall just behind it. He pushed it and a trap door opened up to a hidden stairwell.

"All right, Tails Chao!" Naruto punched his fist in the air. This had to be it. Looking down, Naruto saw dim, multicolored flickering lights dancing along the walls. He braced his back against the wall and gripped a kunai in his hand as he slowly climbed down. As he reached the bottom, the light grew brighter until Naruto found himself in a treasure chamber where dozens of brightly colored radiance. in all their brilliance. The next room was a treasure chamber brightly colored gems

"Chaos emeralds!" Naruto exclaimed. "There's tons of them. I thought there were only seven."

Tails Chao shook his head. "Chao." With that reply, Naruto understood everything.

"They're fakes? We'd better take them all and bring them back to Ero-Sennin. What do you think is in that chest there?" Naruto pointed to a small wooden chest lying in the corner in the shadow of the emeralds' brilliance.

"Chao! Chao! Chao!" Tails Chao went bug eyed and his fur stood on end. He grabbed onto tugged on Naruto's sleeve to pull him away.

"Hey, chill little fuzz dude," Naruto bent down to the chest and saw the symbol of the red scorpion on it. One of Sasori's secret weapons, he guessed. "Is there something bad in this chest?"

Tails Chao whimpered and nodded.

"I'm gonna open it. Don't freak out on me, okay little buddy?"

Naruto easily snapped the rusted lock open. Upon opening the lid, no monsters or ghosts jumped out. Still, Naruto cautiously peered inside.

"There's nothing in here except a beat up old doll," he lifted out of the chest a dusty old rag doll, but there was something vaguely familiar about it.

"That doll..." Naruto borught it closer into the light, "It looks like Tails. A...Tails Doll."

There was no question, it had to be Tails. It had the same two tails and everything. A warped, corrupted version of Tails, anyway. It was as if some psycho killer took a ginsu knife and sliced Tails' body apart, cleaned out his internal organs, jammed stuffing into the body, then messily stitched the pieces back together, creating some sick Frankenstein Tails creature. Instead of the real Tails' blue eyes, the doll had a pair of empty lifeless black ones. A demon Tails plushie from Hell. Another red fake chaos emerald hung from his head by an antenna.

"Is this what's been scaring you, Tails Chao? I guess it is really creepy. Why do you think there would be a doll that looks like Tails locked away in Sasori's workshop?" Naruto's face lit up with a grin. "You know what would be funny? Let's surprise the real Tails with this when we see him. I bet it'll scare the crap out of him."

"Chaoooo..." Tails Chao said mournfully. _Not a good idea, Naruto. Not a good idea at all._

Moments later, Naruto emerged from the workshop with a sack full of emeralds slung over his back. He breathed a huge sigh of relief upon being back outside where the winds seemed to have died down. He sniffed a pleasant aroma in the air. it came from Toad Boss Gamabunta's giant pipe. Jiraiya was there on top, puffing on his own pipe.

"Ero-Sennin! Why are you here?" Naruto shouted.

"That's a damn good question, brat," Gamabunta grumbled, taking an unhealthily long drag from his pipe. "Jiraiya, look at this hellhole! Sand everywhere! Why'd you have to drag me along?"

"To take Naruto out of here. I take it you found a good haul, eh?"

"I found a bunch of chaos emeralds. They're fakes though."

"Excellent! We're taking them to Myobokuzan where we will proceed to the next level of your training."

Naruto jumped to the top of the toad's head and sat next to his sensei. Tails Chao stayed firmly perched on Naruto's shoulder.

Jiraiya studied the Tails Chao on Naruto who simply smiled back at him. "I see you've been busy. You'll explain to me later what that little fox thing is and where you got that snazzy motorcycle. Those are both good ways to grab attention from the ladies. You're learning well, Naruto."

"Yeah yeah. That's not why I did it," Naruto murmured. "What did I miss while in Konoha, Ero-Sennin?"

"Plenty," Ero-Sennin replied. "Sonic's friends are quickly preparing to assault Orochimaru's island prison. I want you to be ready to go down there. Any objections?"

"Just try and stop me," Naruto said grinning. "You hear that, Tails Chao? We're finally gonna get Sonic."

**To Be Continued...**

**Yes. Sonic is in the next chapter. I've been feeling bad that Sonic hasn't been making many appearances, but the next upcoming arc will be mostly about him.**

**Orochimaru's Island, Ilha de Queimada Grande is a real place on Earth, by the way. Herpatology has always been a hobby of mine and it will be a great place to serve for the huge ultimate battle between Sonic, Naruto and friends against Orochimaru.**

**See you then. **


	22. Knighty Knight Sonic

**Chapter 22 is here! This story is really getting long now**

**Kage Bijuu: Yes. That's the demonic soul eating Tails Doll there, but Naruto didn't know that. That's why he took it.**

**Clever Phoenix: The one thing the Naruto manga needs is for Gaara to ride into war in his pimpmobile. Shadow is very pissed and he's going to some insane damage soon.**

**stormingnight: Yes. The Tails Doll has returned.**

**Dragon Man 180: I now exactly how you feel. I've been thinking long and hard about how to plan the big upcoming battle. I think it'll be a lot more involved than that. Knuckles in green spandex amuses me, personally. Don't let it bother you too much. Knuckles will go through a lot changes along with everybody else.**

**Kitsune Super Fox: Thanks! It would be very hilarious. Naruto and Gaara are fighting together in the manga right now. That's getting somewhere.**

**The Guy in the Background: The horror in Naruto is the stuff that I think really drew me in to the show. I hope you're still enjoying this insanely long story.**

**Spam X: It's back again! Read this, too.  
**

**Hanzo the Salamander: Thanks!**

**Dan: Best of luck to you on your job. Life is going great for me. A lot is happening. There is a big climax coming soon, but it's not the end of the story. Still got a long way to go for that, but there is a huge climax on the way that will be a big turning point for the story. I like the idea of the omake and it doesn't have to be at the end of the story. I think the story has gone on long enough that the cast of Sonic and Naruto can throw a celebration. If you have any ideas for it, by all means let me know.**

**Morph: Tails Doll is going to have an important part in the story. I felt that Anko would be the one to make trouble for Shadow. She likes messing around with guys like Shadow.**

**Gigapuff: Thank you for the fav!**

**Chapter XXII: Knighty Knight Sonic**

The hurricane was on its way. Wind wrapped around the Five Nations. Floods came from heaven. Lightning danced across the sky. Flames gathered where they struck and raged through the rain. Dust rose from the earth and took to the air.

With the coming storm, all five elements spun together in motion.

According to the experts from the Hidden Cloud Village, they were in for the worst storm of the century. A Kyuubi level threat, they called it. So while the villages living on the eastern coast boarded up their buildings and nervously watched the ominous dark clouds rolling in, out in the middle of the ocean, the hurricane struck with all its wrath.

Deep in the bowels in his subterranean layer, Orochimaru made good use of his old sensei's best scrying technique to watch the storm blow over his island. Peering into the crystal ball, he saw everything on the island. The palm trees bent under the winds until they were pulled from the soil. The ocean waves pummeled into the cliff sides. The forests were flooded. From far above, Ilha de Queimada Grande appeared to be alive with the squirming of millions of snakes, hissing and rattling over every single patch of dirt. They would be agitated and more aggressive than ever before.

Good. The Snake Lord was pleased.

Orochimaru's underground lair stretched for miles under the island's surface, but even in those deepest pits, away from the rushing winds and crashing waves, the prisoners grew restless. Cursed seals started to activate. Normal looking men turned into monsters, yellow eyes gleamed in the darkness, and thugs started to tear at each other's throats.

The Snake Lord was very pleased.

Orochimaru, their master and keeper, kept a watchful eye, yet remained calm as ever. Let a few tear each other apart if they wished. It would be a nice reward for the strong, and a suitable punishment for the weak A bit of unpredictable chaos on his faraway island was a welcome change of pace. It would make a good example of what his new world would look like. A world where the skies would be in constant turmoil.

The lightning storm was most unusual, acting in ways that nature shouldn't allow. Over a dozen lightning bolts struck the ground in the exact same spot, coalescing to form a shimmering sphere of rippling energy. Orochimaru leaned in closer to his crystal ball. The electric field solidified, then exploded in a cloud of brilliant sparks.

A figure stepped out of the lightning charged cloud and stepped across the ground now smooth as glass. The stranger was almost invisible in night shadows with his suit of full plate armor, all black. If ninjas needed to wear serious armor, this is what they'd choose. The knight quickly scanned the terrain around him, then took off into the jungle, racing through the dense forest as if the armor was as weightless as the shadows around him. His run took him to a gnarled old tree hidden deep in the jungle. This was exactly what he was looking for. A knock on the tree showed that the old wood was just a cover for titanium; too thick for even his natural strength to break through. The knight unsheathed his sword and made a circular slash through the tree. The wood burst into flames and the titanium shield melted away at the touch of the knight's silvery blade. Every snake in the area hissed and recoiled away. The knight stepped through the burning hole and carefully descended a crumbling staircase into the dungeon. The soft halo from his glowing sword was his only light source through the corridors.

The knight treaded softly. His armor was made to avoid clanking noises. Enemies were bound to appear, and soon enough, red lights flickered in the darkness. As they moved closer, the knight heard the sound of heavy, ragged breathing. Those lights were eyes. Monstrous eyes with black pupils that spun around like tomoes.

Orochimaru's zombies. These were the special ninjutsu-wielding zombies the knight was warned about. The ones made in the image of some kid Orochimaru once favored. It looked like these creatures were animated from the dead bodies of young teens. That's when the knight tightened his grip and the sword's light turned from a soft halo, to a burning, vengeful flame. The creatures matched it with their own unholy flames in their eyes. With their clawed arms outstretched, the zombies shambled towards the knight, moaning and howling together. Their haunting cries echoed through the dungeon, yearning for the taste of fresh meat. They sensed a beating pulse beneath that armor, their elongated tongues hung slack from their mouths, dripping with blood and ichor.

The Black Knight's sword lashed out, a metallic hiss accompanied the sudden ray of light. The sword cut them all down in a few eye blinks. Thin ribbons of lights zigzagged from every angle. Every strike against the monsters brought forth a burst of sunlight into the dungeon that reduced the zombies to ashes.

One zombie dodged to the side and muttered something that his loose hanging lips had trouble saying. A fireball shot out of its mouth. The knight swiped at the ball of flame with his sword. It cut through the fire , splitting the sphere in half, and sent two fireballs right back at them. He barely heard their horrid death moans inside the roaring flames, but he saw their worm eaten grey skin bulging eyeballs slowly melting over their skulls. Stepping over their ashened black bones, the Black Knight readied his sword as the next wave of hungry undead shambled down the hallway. Sneaky these things were not and although they were much faster than the average zombie and could probably take down a human and devour his brains in seconds, the knight was much faster. He dove right into the midst of the zombie horde. His flashing blade went everywhere at once. The zombies' exposed torsos were sliced open, their rotten insides spilled out onto the wet floor, before burning away.

"This Orochimaru guy is sick. One sick puppy," the Black Knight said as he returned the holy sword to its sheath. He looked around at the destruction, the piles of smoke and charred corpses.

The sword's light flickered away and returned to its black scabbard. The knight looked around and shook his head. "I liked it so much better fighting robots."

The Snake Lord was pissed.

The Black Knight had only the vaguest idea of where to go, but he trusted his instincts. He headed down, deeper into pits. He had just one goal. To find one prisoner down here and bring him out. After a quick rundown through the dungeon, he found his target.

Sonic the Hedgehog.

The blue hedgehog was lying on the cold, stone floor, his once bright blue spines now bent out of shape and covered with grime. He laid there with his eyes half open staring up at nothing. A small trickling of drool leaked out of his mouth.

"Hey, Sonic," the knight spoke, gently rapping on the cell door. "I came to free you."

The hedgehog only slightly turned his head. "Do I…know you?"

"Oh, yeah!" the knight answered. "We go way back. Way, way back."

A few swipes through the air and the cage door crumbled into a heap on the floor in a million pieces.

The knight raised his sword triumphantly. "You're free at last! How do you feel, Sonic?"

Sonic slowly turned to face the knight and rose to his feet, wobbling.

"Hungry…"

"I figured you would be. You look worse than I thought." The knight opened up a small door hidden in his breastplate and presented him with what was inside. "Here ya go, Sonic. Nice, hot, saucy, and super spicy. Just the way you like it."

Sonic's eyes went wide with shock. It was the real thing. Not a dream. Not a hallucination. A real chili dog. It was fresh, hot and steamy. The fiery aroma of the chilies took him out of the prison and brought him back to his mom's kitchen, back to the warm, sunny, festive Christmas Island. The toasted bun could barely contain the thick overload of chili. A pleasant warmth came over him that he never could imagine feeling in this cold, heartless pit. Sonic bit into it, the first thing he'd eaten not covered in dirt.

"Isn't this the best armor in the world?" the knight rapped on his chest proudly. "How many knights wished they had a portable oven? I had Tails install that for me. You never know where you'll end up when you'll need it."

"Huh? You know Tails?" Sonic asked with a mouthful. "That's a name I'm glad to hear. So he built that suit of armor for you, huh? That's so Tails. You must be mad cool if Tails trusted you with his machines and sent you down here."

"I'll tell you all about it more once we're out, so let's juice," the knight put a hand over Sonic's shoulder to help his balance.

Sonic quickly pushed his hand away. "It's all right. I can walk just fine."

"Yeah? You really don't look fine."

"Sorry. I'm just not used to getting rescued like this. Usually, it's Sonic the Hedgehog who saves his friends, not the other way around."

"Then nothing has changed," the Black Knight said as he removed his helmet. Sonic forced himself not to spit out his chewed up chili dog when he saw the knight for who he truly was. A young blue hedgehog. A face he hadn't seen in years.

"It can't be…! You're…"

"I'm you. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog…from the past. I can't believe it took you that long to figure it out."

When the initial shock wore off, Sonic spoke. "Well, I thought that nasally sounding voice was familiar, but how do you run in that armor?"

"It's a frictionless alloy," Sonic from the past said. "Malleable, but still unbreakable, and weightless. Feels like I'm wearin' nothin' at all."

"You're not wearing your shoes."

"Don't need 'em. My armor works just like your shoes."

Sonic looked down at his own feet to see His muddy worn out shoes, gone from bright red to dull brown. "I should probably change shoes myself. I haven't taken off my socks since I got here. Can you imagine what they must smell like?"

"Maybe you should leave them on. At least until we get outta here."

"So, I can't just go around calling you Sonic. What should I call you? Past Sonic? Short and Stout Sonic? Sonic the Canned Hedgehog?"

"I'd prefer it if you called me "Classic Sonic."

Sonic smirked. "Okay, "Classic Sonic." I always was a big fan of myself, but I never thought of traveling through time to see me. What gives?"

"A mysterious stranger from the future appeared before me one day," Classic Sonic said. "He told me of that I would one day face an evil snake ninja named Orochimaru. We were destined to fight over the chaos emeralds, but he would capture me, and if he wasn't stopped, it would be the end of the world. Pretty simple, really. I was given this sword and then Tails got really excited over the idea. He suggested that if I was going to be knighted, I should look like one. So here we are. I traveled twenty years into the future to get here."

"Whoa!" Sonic held his hands up. "Twenty years? That's not right. I'm not even twenty years old."

"But my time traveling reader gauged twenty years."

"Then you suck at time travel. This isn't an episode of Mobius: 25 Years Later," Sonic said. "I'm turning sixteen this year. Tails will be nine. You do the math."

"That's it?" Classic Sonic folded his arms over and rapidly tapped his foot. "I gotta say I'm disappointed. You got old fast."

Sonic went bug eyed. "I grew taller and I lost weight. Hopefully, you'll do the same. Can you believe I was this chunky?"

"Chunky?" Classic Sonic cried out. "I can beat you in a race any day of the week, you old geezer. Let's go! Right now!"

"I wish I could," the older Sonic said, "but we'll have to do it later. Orochimaru poisoned me so if I do any running at all, my heart will explode."

Classic Sonic groaned and threw his hands up in the air. "I don't believe it. Sonic the Hedgehog goes running, dies from a heart attack. You sure I didn't travel sixty years into the future? This changes my escape plan. We'll have to leisurely stroll out of here, I guess."

"Not yet. There are more prisoners here in the lower levels. We need to go down there and bust them out, too."

"There's no time for that. We're leaving now."

"We have to free them," Sonic said firmly. "Come on. You can't leave a zone without busting those flickies and bunnies out of their egg chamber, right? That's how you know you cleared the zone. It's the same deal here."

Classic Sonic shook his head. "Sorry, old timer. You're just gonna screw up my mission."

"Old timer?" Sonic sputtered. "I never thought I'd hear that comin' out of my own mouth. You've got some attitude, kid."

"Yeah. You would know. Listen, if we stay, Orochimaru will catch you again, you die, and the world will die with you."

Sonic grinned. "When has that ever stopped you before? Cuz' it never stopped me. Come on, it'll be fun."

"I want to free those guys too," Classic Sonic said. "Let me come back for them later, but not while you're still around. You said it yourself. You can't run. You're weak. How are you going to defend yourself?"

"Why don't you hand me that fancy looking sword?" Sonic asked. "That oughta give me an edge."

Classic Sonic frowned quizzically. "You mean this? I dunno. This is a smart sword. It can be very picky about who wields it. "

"If you can wield it, so can I."

"Okay," he carefully placed the sword in Sonic's hand, "but I'm warning you. It's not as easy as it looks…"

Sonic inspected the sword, sweeping it in the air. He could hear the awesome sharpness by the sound it made hissing through the air. The sword was long and thin and was it felt just right in his hand. The blade was a masterwork, forged from an exotic metal brighter than silver, leaking out a holy golden, light that felt like staring in the sun.

"This is a really cool sword…wait!" Sonic's eyes moved toward the base of the sword, where the blade met the handle. Below the intricate golden carvings, there was a face with a dour looking expression "It has a face on it?"

"It's a magic talking sword. It needs to speak from somewhere," said Classic Sonic. "And it has a name. It's called Caliburn."

"So I guess I should say something to it. Hi, Caliburn How're you doing?"

"Better when I was in the hands of real knights, you knave," the sword replied sourly.

Sonic almost dropped the sword when its mouth started moving. "Eh? Sorry. Am I holding this the wrong way?"

"Oh, don't worry. He was like that with me when I first held him," Classic Sonic assured him. "He's just not used to you yet."

"I'm the same guy!" Sonic protested."Heck, I'm the same guy, just older, stronger, more experienced…"

"You are a cursed being. I can feel the taint on your hands," Caliburn said icily.

Sonic pulled a face. "Cursed being? What a snob. I bet you were forged by elves."

"It is not too much to ask that a sacred sword be wielded by a knight whose soul is pure and whose heart is strong, knave."

Sonic turned to point at his classic counterpart. "See that guy over there who looks exactly like me? He'll vouch for me."

"Let's not jump to conclusions, knave. A true knight proves his worth on his own merit. I don't care how similar you look to the Black Knight. I will not be satisfied until I can see an example of your skill firsthand."

"Oh, I'll show you and example of my skill, all right," Sonic said forcefully. "Come on. We're going to cut down Orochimaru's whole operation."

As he began to march down the hallway, Sonic felt his shoes squish into something. He looked down to find the bottom of his shoes caked in a white mushy paste that smelled like shit.

"Aw man…" Sonic groaned. "There's snake poo on my shoes."

"Gotta watch where you're going," Classic Sonic said wryly.

"Yeah yeah, let me just scrape this off," Sonic reached down to the soles of his shoe with the tip of his sacred sword.

"You dare defile me in such a way," Caliburn growled.

Sonic ignored him and scraped everything away, despite the sword's protests.

The sword sounded like it wanted to puke. "No chivalry…no honor…you will never be a knight."

Sonic smiled back at it. "I think we'll get along great. I know I may not be a trained swordsman, but I'm still pretty quick with the draw. I know a few Iaijutsu moves." He sheathed Caliburn into the scabbard then immediately swung it out with a loud schwing in the air.

"Careful how you unsheathe me, knave. You'll dull the blade."

"Not as dull as your face," Sonic retorted. "So I guess I'll have to start being called Sir Sonic now, huh?"

"Sir Knave is the only title befitting you, knave."

"I don't care about that the title so much anyway. I just want to free these prisoners of Orochimaru and if you do a good job, maybe we can go a few rounds with the fanged man himself."

"Don't think for a moment that you can defeat your enemy by just going around knavishly knaving about, you knave," Caliburn warned. "Heed my words seriously."

Sonic chuckled to himself. "Cal, after what you just said, I'm not taking a thing you say seriously anymore."

* * *

Anko gazed out the small window into the storm tossed sea. Orochimaru's island was near. His killing intent was easily felt in the waves. She slowly sipped her tea, taking great comfort in watching the hurricane while standing calmly by the fireplace. Thank goodness the rest of these clowns on her team were taking well to riding through the storm in a rickety old wooden ship. Poor Amy was faring the worst, leaning over her sword with a queasy look on her face. Kiba was napping against Akamaru in the corner. Shino had the right idea and sat stoically, unperturbed by the raging winds outside. But honestly. Sunglasses at night? Those kikai bugs must have eaten away the Aburame eyeballs long ago, Anko theorized. Then there was Shadow, who stood around with his arms folded, giving her that same intense glare throughout the whole trip.

Anko breathed a sigh into her teacup. "I know you're glaring at me, Shadow," she said, still focused on the storm outside. "I know that not because I have special ninja eyes in the back of my head, but because your smoldering glare is one of the only facial expressions you ever use. Relax already. Sit down and have some of this delicious dango." Anko picked up a skewer and stabbed a few fresh ones right off the fire. She smeared the red bean paste over the piping hot dumplings and stuck the whole skewer in her mouth. The thick red paste looked like blood dripping down her mouth.

Shadow snorted. This woman made eating snacks look like an act of violence. "Is that the only thing you ever eat?"

"My ancestors invented this dish in the Kano Mitarashi tea house ling ago. My parents even named me after the anko sauce. It's in the blood," Anko replied as she wiped the red sauce away. "In fact, I became Orochimaru's apprentice because I had the nerve to steal his dango, so I have this to than for making me the shinobi I am today."

"Please don't mention food right now…" Amy muttered as she slumped down further.

"If you don't want to talk about food, then we'll talk about our mission," Anko said. "Everyone, gather around. Orochimaru's Island is near. Let's go over the infiltration."

"That was a fast trip," Kiba said with a yawn as he stretched.

Anko unrolled a large map over the table, ignoring how the nearby lantern singed the corner.

"We'll be landing on the island shortly," Anko said. "Unfortunately, this hurricane won't help us maintain cover. Orochimaru will see right through any cover we provide. He most likely already knows we're here, but our biggest problem once we make it to shore is how to deal with all those vipers living there."

"Bah! If those snakes bite me, I have Akamaru prepared to bite my arm off," Kiba boasted.

Akamaru barked back.

"That's not going to work on every problem, Kiba," Shino said, deadpan.

"It'll work on at least two. We're still Konoha's best when it comes to handling venom. Your bugs can even suck the venom right out."

Shino nodded. "Yes. That's why I made sure to insert a small colony of insects into the ears of everyone on board while you were sleeping the other night."

Amy jumped up and screamed. "There's bugs living in my head?"

"In your head and crawling all around inside your body," Shino said.

Shadow rubbed his chin in thought. "Hmm. That would explain that itchy feeling you kept complaining about under your—"

"Shut up, Shadow!"

"They're harmless symbiotic insects," Shino explained calmly. "They won't harm you in anyway. In return for protecting you, all they might do is eat your pancreas."

Amy started twitching frantically. "He's joking, right? Please tell me he's joking."

Kiba shook his head. "Since that was Shino talking, I'm gonna say…no, it wasn't a joke."

"And you're not worried about these bugs?"

Kiba laughed. "I don't need bugs. My clan has their own ways of enhancing our bodies. If things get really bad, I have a secret weapon," He pulled out of his pocket a small white pill that shone just like a miniature full moon. "Moon Pills. If you could instill the very essence of the Inuzuka clan into one pill, it would be this."

Shadow scowled at the glowing pill, completely unimpressed. "Yeah? Well, I came up with my own solution to dealing with these snakes. And it's better than the rest of yours."

"Oh, really?" Anko sat down, intrigued. "Show me."

"See? I came prepared," Shadow brought out a small cage where a thin, but long black furred weasel like animal sat inside.

"What is that?"

"This is my mongoose," Shadow stated proudly. "Nature's greatest snake killer."

Anko sighed loudly. "Shadow, one little mongoose is not enough to beat an entire island full of snakes."

"Oh, yes she will. Have you seen what happens when a cobra tries to corner one of these things? They're vicious. Plus, I starved her throughout the whole trip. She'll eat her fill of snakes tonight."

Anko shrugged. "Well, good luck keeping that beast alive. These aren't normal snakes out there."

The lights blew out suddenly, plunging the boat into darkness. Along with the howling winds, Anko heard a piercing hiss. Judging by the sound, she knew it came from something enormous.

"Speak of the devil…"

"What was that?" Amy jumped into battle mode, but the rocking of the boat along with her heavy sword threw her back on her ass.

"Orochimaru just made his first move," Anko said as she stepped out the cabin and into the storm. Circling around their boat was the enormous coils belonging to Orochimaru's favorite summon. She looked up to meet the eyes of the giant anaconda staring down at her, smiling.

"Manda! I knew that was you."

"Ah, Anko. What brings you all the way out here?" the snake asked.

"I'm here to kill my old master," Anko replied. "Whaddya say you let us by, Manda? You hate Orochimaru, and you can help me get rid of him once and for all."

Manda let out a deep throaty laugh. "True, I don't care what happens to Orochimaru, but I do want to see the gathering of the chaos emeralds. I can't let you interfere with that. I'm truly sorry, Anko-hime. I'd much rather be summoned by you than by him. You might not be as powerful, but at least you have the tits he wish he had." A dangerous twinkle flared in the snake's eye.

Anko stepped back and pulled her coat over her chest. The rain was making her shirt clingier and more see through every second.

"You are so low, class. It's a wonder Orochimaru even bothers to summon you."

Shadow barged out onto the deck. "What is going on out here? I don't have to listen to this crap all night."

Manda turned to Shadow. "You again! That infernal black hedgehog."

"Mongoose! Attack!" Shadow flung his mongoose at the snake's head. With a piercing howl, the mongoose landed on the snake's face, went rabid and started clawing and biting at Manda's eyes in a frenzy.

"Argh!" the giant snake swung his head from side to side, but the mongoose clung tight and dug its claws deep.

Anko let out a small chuckle. "Nice distraction, Shadow. Now leave him to me while the rest of you get off this boat and into Orochimaru's compound."

"How do we do that?"

"Amy! Your chakra is ten times as strong in this storm. Use your powers to command the winds to maneuver your group for an aerial strike."

"Are you serious, Anko-sensei?"

"Dead serious," Anko said with a smile that looked anything but serious. "Use that kenjutsu technique you were taught.

Amy gulped as she stood at the edge of the boat with sword in hand and stared into the howling endless storm.

**"Fuuton: Shippuken!" (Hurricane Sword)**

Amy spun her sword around and around, creating a her own personal cyclone. It tore the wooden planks off the deck and lifted Amy and her companions into the air.

"Wait! Take these," Anko tossed and unrolled scroll into the air. Hundreds of exploding tags scattered in the winds and slapped onto every inch of Amy's zanbakutou. Amy shut her eyes tight. It wasn't like she could see anything in front of her anyway. In the midst of the hurricane, it was all a gray blur.

But her sword could see. The sword demon, Zabuza was in there. She felt the Mist nin stirring every time she swung her sword. She felt the power of the Seven Swordsmen channeling through her. Zabuza was the shinobi that could find his way through the thickest mists

Putting all her strength and chakra into one blow, Amy struck the ground. The power of the Kubikiri Houchi, a hundred exploding tags, and the force of an S-rank wind jutsu combined to create an massive explosion. The force ripped off a chunk of island and sent the pieces spinning through the hurricane winds while Amy, Shadow, Shino, Kiba, and Akamaru all plunged down a deep hole. When the dizziness faded and her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Amy found herself staring into the empty sockets of a grinning skull.

"EEEEE!" Amy she pushed it away only to find that disturbing the pile sent a whole load of decayed old bones clattering on top of her.

She was sitting on top of a whole pile of bones.

"Where are we?" Shadow asked, looking around at the chamber full of abandoned skeletons.

"The place where Orochimaru disposes of his victims, apparently," Shino said.

"Oh, I hope none of these are hedgehog skeletons," Amy said, clutching her shirt, struggling to get her breath back.

"He's not here. I'd be able to spot the faker's decayed remains in a heartbeat. Let's go this way," Shadow declared as he marched out of the chamber.

"Is anyone else bothered by what he just said?" Kiba asked.

"As long as he's still alive, I'm okay with it," Amy returned her sword to her back and ran after Shadow. "Here I come, Sonic."

"You are nervous. I can feel your hands shaking, knave," Caliburn, noting the rattling from Sonic's quivering hands. "What terrifying monster are you imagining that could frighten you like this?"

"Nah. Terrifying monsters I can deal with," Sonic said. "I sense Amy is here."

"Amy?" Classic Sonic put his helmet back on and pulled Sonic close. "You can't tell her anything about who I am. To them, I'm just a mysterious Black Knight. Got it?"

"Eh, I think you're too young for her by now," Sonic replied. "She's not gonna bother you."

"She can't know I'm Sonic." The knight insisted. "If she touches me, it'll create on of those um…time paradox things."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "I use that excuse all the time. Be a man and take your helmet off. No way am I suffering through this alone."

"I came to save you from Orochimaru. Not Amy."

"I thought you knights were all about the whole chivalry and romance with the lovely damsels stuff. Hey, you wanna be my new best friend and take Amy back to your own time?"

"There already is an Amy in my time!" Classic Sonic cried. "What are you trying to do? Screw up the whole space time continuum?"

"I hear voices down this way," Amy's voice loudly echoed.

Sonic gave a resigned shrug and relaxed himself against the wall. "Well, after all the torture Orochimaru put me through, how bad can this get?"

Amy rounded the corner. She saw Sonic. Her green eyes gleamed wildly in the torchlight. In her hands was the single biggest sword Sonic had ever laid eyes on.

"Oh, this is gonna suck."

"SONIKKU!" Amy squealed. "Sonic the Hedgehog! Shadow! We found him."

"Is it his mangled corpse?" Shadow's voice murmured down the hall.

"No, Shadow! It's him! He's alive! He broke free!" Amy pointed to where Sonic stood. Shadow rounded the corner and fixed him a disgruntled look.

"Who's the shadowy hedgehog poser?" the Black Knight whispered into Sonic's ear.

Sonic chuckled. "Oh, that's right, you never met Shadow before. You're gonna be seeing him around a lot in a few years."

"I've has enough of your cowardice, knave," Caliburn growled. "I absolve myself of my service to you!" With his own power, Caliburn flew out of Sonic's hand and sailed into the air where he impaled Shadow through the arm.

"OWWW!" Shadow yelped. "What the Hell, Faker? What the Hell?"

Sonic scratched his head nervously. "Take it easy, Shads. It's just a scratch."

"Shit! It burns!" the spot of the wound was sizzling with wisps of black smoke pouring out.

"Fool! This sacred blade can harm those only with evil in their hearts," Caliburn spoke. "As long as I am in you, I will burn you until all the darkness inside you is eradicated."

"I don't need a stupid sword's opinion. Get out!" Shadow plucked the blade out of his arm and threw it back at Sonic. "You threw it at me, Faker."

Sonic threw his hands up in defense. "You got the wrong idea, Shadow. The sword did it on its own. You heard what it said. It doesn't even like me."

Shadow's hands were laced with violent chaos energy. "Neither do I. Now I'm going to kill you!"

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Kiba broke in between them, pushing them both away. "We came here to rescue the guy. Not kill him. Let's all just cool down."

"What moron left you in possession of an intelligent sword?" Shadow grumbled as he applied his chaos energy to heal the wound.

"The moron in the black armor," Sonic smirked as he pointed to the knight. "I wouldn't be free if it weren't for that guy."

"Sonic, when did you break out, exactly?" Amy asked.

"About fifteen minutes ago. Why?"

Amy started to stare at him hard and her cheeks puffed up in anger. She ran up to him with the huge sword in her hand. Sonic cautiously nervously backed off into a corner.

"I bet you were free this whole time and didn't bother to tell me you were all right. Do you know how worried sick I've been?" Amy yelled in Sonic's face as she pressed the insanely sharp blade directly on his nose.

Shino nudged Kiba from the side. "They're attacking each other again. Aren't you going to step in?"

Kiba grunted. "What? Again? Forget it. I'm not butting in a second time. If everyone wants to kill the hedgehog that badly, I can't stop 'em."

"Amy, please!" Sonic wailed. "Could you please point the sharp end of that sword away from my face?"

With a confused look on her face, Amy pulled away. "Sonic, why are you cowering in the corner like that? Why aren't you running, like you always do?"

"He can't run anymore," the Black Knight explained. "Orochimaru poisoned him."

"What? Sonic can't run? So that means…" a hamster started running a wheel inside Amy's head. "…If I were to chase him…he wouldn't be able to get away!" she jumped in the air ecstatically. "I could just grab him and he'd be mine forever!"

The knight sweated underneath his armor and backed away nervously "Something like that…"

Amy snagged Sonic and wrapped her arms around him in a bone-crushing hug. "Oh, Sonic. This is wonderful. Now we can finally be together and you'll never leave my side. This is the happiest day of my life!" she wailed with tears flowing from her eyes and into Sonic's chest. "Let's get married right now!"

"No!"

"And let's have babies right now!"

"HELL NO!"

Shadow sighed. "For crying out loud, faker. You have your own sword. Defend yourself."

"This knave is not yet ready to use my powers," the sword said.

Amy suddenly let him go and looked at the sword in shock. "Sonic, that sword just talked. That's cool! Mine doesn't even do that."

"Then you've got a very well behaved sword," Sonic said dryly. "Mine won't shut up."

Amy looked to the mysterious Black Knight. "You gave him that sword?"

"Yeah, I hoped they'd get along better. They're both all about spinning into things and slicing them up, but…there you go."

Amy stepped closer to the knight, eyeing him suspiciously. "Have we met somewhere before, Sir Knight? I feel like I now you from somewhere before. Have you ever rescued me?"

The knight shrugged. "Can't say I have."

"I guess I would remember if a knight in black armor came to save me. But your voice is really sexy. Would you take off your helmet for me?"

"I can't. The Black Knight's Code of honor forbids me from removing my helmet during a quest."

"We have Sonic back," Amy said excitedly. "I think this quest is over. We can all go back home now."

"You guys can all go if you want," Sonic said with a wave of goodbye. "I'm not leaving until we free all the prisoners on this island."

"This is a stupid idea, even coming form you, faker," Shadow snarled. "How do you expect to be useful without your speed?"

"Believe me, Shadow. I was thinking about it. I think I've got a solution," Sonic said. "I can't run anywhere, but that doesn't mean I can't ride anything."

Kiba nodded. "All right. I see what you're getting at. I'm willing to let you ride Akamaru, but you'll have to—"

"Not Akamaru," Sonic cut him off. "I got a better one in mind. Shadow!"

"Eh?"

Sonic pointed powerfully at him. "A gallant knight like myself needs a mount. Shadow, you will be my mighty steed."

Shadow looked at him as if he were insane and dismissed him with a wave of his hand. "Get bent, faker. The Ultimate Life Form is no one's steed. Least of all yours."

When Shadow turned his back to him, Sonic smirked and jumped onto his shoulders.

"Let's go, Shadow! Away! Show us the meaning of haste," Sonic cried and kicked him in the chest. "HYAA!"

"Knock it off!" Shadow grated, but something compelled him to start running, piggybacking Sonic through the dungeon.

Sonic grinned towards the knight. "See, I told you this'll be fun, didn't I?"

"I see you prefer to take council in your fellow knaves," Caliburn grumbled. "This dark hedgehog is less honorable than you."

"Did that sword just call me a knave?" Shadow growled.

"I believe he did, but that's okay Shadow. You don't have to wield it. You're my steed, remember? Hyaa!" Sonic kicked him again.

"Stop doing that!" Shadow screamed.

Sonic held his sword high and then pointed it straight forward in an epic display. They rode forth with the Black Knight easily keeping up with the hedgehogs. Kiba rode behind on Akamaru carrying Amy and Shino along. Caliburn lit the way as the team rode forth into the lowest pits of Orochimaru's lair.

Sonic signaled for everyone behind him to stop. "You have been well trained, my faithful steed," Sonic said in a high accented voice. "And thank you, Sir Knight, for doing the all important coconut clopping. Couldn't have done it without ya."

"Your welcome," the Black Knight said and tossed the two coconut halves aside.

"Get off of me already," Shadow unceremoniously threw Sonic to the floor. "Here's the door to the main prison."

Sonic stared at a rusted metal door made to look like a Rashomon Gate. He was all prepared to slice the door off its hinges, but they opened themselves with an angry creak. A chill wind beckoned him into the next hall. Now that he was walking everywhere, Sonic had plenty of time to view the scenery around him. They passed through a hall of execution where Orochimaru's long dead inmates were hung crucified, tied to wooden beams with snakes, most of whom were dead too, but a few remained alive and slowly slithered around the humans carcasses, their sunken corpses drained of all life. Blood dripped from the walls and ceiling and collected into small moving pools on the floor. The torches flickered brightly in this hall to make sure that everyone could easily see the tortured visages of the snake sannin's slain prisoners.

Amy clutched Sonic's arm and whispered into his ear. "Sonic, there's blood everywhere. I don't want to stay here."

"You can stay behind, Amy," Sonic said coolly. "I never meant for anyone else to get involved in this."

"I wish I could be as brave as you, Sonic. Kiss me. That will give me courage I need."

Sonic gently pushed away. "No way I'm falling for that one. Look, it's not a big deal, Amy. No one's gonna wanna mess with you with that thing on your back. Besides, we'll be in and out in no time."

"Not likely," Shino said. "Orochimaru himself is waiting for us behind that door."

Sonic looked up at the door at the end of the hallway. Another Rashomon Gate with a hideous demon face staring down at him.

"Oh, yeah? I was kinda hoping he would be. Maybe I should knock," Sonic gently rapped on the metal gate.

The doors swung wide open. In the middle of the next room, Orochimaru stood there alone with an affable grin on his face.

"Welcome, friends," the snake sannin greeted. "Welcome friends from Konoha. Welcome friends from Mobius. Welcome, mysterious time traveler. And most of all welcome, Sonic. Welcome to my main prison. Congratulations on nearly winning your freedom. You could've left long ago, but your mindless running around through my dungeon halls ends now."

"Looks like you're ready to rumble, Oro," Sonic unsheathed Caliburn in front of the Snake Lord's face. "Never guessed you'd show your face here in person."

"Kukuku," Orochimaru gave a low chuckle. "Did you think I would just let you barge into my dungeon and free all my prisoners? There are years worth of research and experiments in here, and you are not going to free them. Know this well, hedgehog. This prison isn't one of those silly egg chambers, and I am not Dr. Robotnik."

Sonic nodded slowly. "You're right, Oro. You're not Robotnik. I mean, don't let him know I said this, but at least the Eggman has some sense of honor and fair play. I don't know who these people are that you've locked away here or what you've done to them, but nobody deserves what you've put them through. I've heard the screams echoing through these walls. The way you treat even your own snakes is sick. All just so you could become immortal, right? Man, all that everlasting life would be wasted on pasty faced snake scum like you."

"Well spoken, knave," Caliburn said, "but do you have the mettle to back it up?"

Orochimaru raised a finger against him. "If you disturb one lock in this prison, I'll release the seals placed on their skulls, giving everyone instant brain death."

Sonic lowered his sword.

"Drop it!" Orochimaru demanded. "I want to hear it clatter to the floor."

Sonic obeyed and the let the sword slip from his fingers. He winced when he heard it crash to the floor.

"Sorry, Caliburn. I hope I did the knightly thing here."

Caliburn said nothing, but simply lied there like a lifeless piece of metal.

"That's a good hedgehog," Orochimaru said with a nasty grin. "Now leave that sword with me and kindly walk back to your cell. I will have use for you very soon." He turned to face the others. "As for the rest of you, I thought I taught you all a lesson on Mobius, but it seems you had to come back for more. Very well. I need more bodies for my undead army. Remember, no matter what time or place you are from, you'll never be able to surprise me—" he paused at the sound of rumbling coming from all around. The wall beside Orochimaru exploded. A figure in leapt out, a blur of red and green.

Orochimaru coughed and brushed the dust off his robe. "Who would do such a cruel thing to my wall—" he looked up. "You!"

The mysterious figure stepped out of the dust and rubble, revealing his face. That echidna. The Guardian from the Floating Island. Only he looked much different from before. This time, he clothed himself in a tight green spandex outfit with bright orange legwarmers above his blocky shoes. His hair was cut much shorter. His long dreads were now a more uniform bowl cut.

"Sorry, I'm late, everyone," Knuckles said. "My new master had to give me some last minute preparations."

"Knuckles, you cut your hair!" Amy shrieked.

Shadow frowned. "You look just like…"

Sonic sputtered, then doubled over onto the floor laughing uncontrollably until tears came out of his eyes. "Knux, I'm so glad you're here, but have you looked in a mirror lately?" The knight also started cracking up and pounding his fist on the wall.

Knuckles flashed Sonic a toothy grin along with a thumbs up, things something he never did before. Sonic never knew how shiny Knuckles' teeth really were.

"It looks good, doesn't it? Gai-sensei said it would accentuate my toned physique. Now my enemies can get a glimpse of perfection right before their defeat."

"The only thing they're going to catch a glimpse of is the Holiday season," Sonic said. "You look like a Christmas tree!"

Orochimaru's eyes widened madly. "Oh, this priceless. I'm so happy that you of all people were able to make it. Do you remember what happened when we first met, Guardian? Shall I refresh your memory for you?"

"The fleeting spirit of youth cannot be grasped by dwelling on the past," Knuckles stated.

"That's too bad, because I had such a good time that day," Orochimaru went on. "Isn't it interesting to think about how my trip to your island is what started it all? The way you begged for mercy as my snakes slithered straight into your soul…"

"You're the one who will be begging for mercy in a second." The green clad echidna threatened." I've gotten a lot stronger since that day."

"Then let's test your newfound strength," the snake sannin dared, opening his arms up wide, leaving himself completely open. "Go ahead. Punch me as hard as you can."

Knuckles reared back his fist. "I've been waiting a long time for this…"

Pouring in all his strength for this one blow, Knuckles slammed his fist into Orochimaru's gut hard. The entire dungeon shook like an earthquake struck. Orochimaru let out a primal, blood drenched scream, as the echidna's spiked fist exploded out of the snake man's back, soaked in blood.

"You see?" Knuckles yelled out. "No ridiculous weapons. No fancy jutsu. Youth. Strength. Vigor. These are the only weapons I need."

"Kukukukuku…" something twitched inside Orochimaru's stomach. Something was alive inside him, squirming around, hissing. Suddenly, hundreds of white snakes spilled out of his innards. Dozens lashed out and dug their fangs into his skin. A hundred bite marks covered his face, each sending burning hot pain into his veins. Knuckles staggered back and fell flat on his face, the venom ebbing away at his strength.

A giant white snake made up of thousands of smaller snakes emerged from Orochimaru's empty body, now reduced to a pile of dead skin. Slowly, it slithered over Knuckles' fallen body towards the others. The air grew heavy with a faint reddish purple haze that snuffed out the torches, plunging the corridor into pitch darkness. Only a pair of fiercely glowing yellow eyes remained, burning like acid on the soul. The Black Knight darted for Caliburn, snatched it from the ground and rolled just out of the way of a hundred lashing snakes. He tossed it back to Sonic. Back in the hedgehog's hand and Caliburn shed a stream of light that revealed the monstrosity before them all. A serpentine shadow fell over the ninjas. A fifty foot long white snake made of thousands of smaller white snakes circled around them. Orochimaru's face melted into a misshapen dragon's head with greasy spied hair on top. He opened his cavernous maw wide, filled with arched fangs, dripping with the black venom that killed all who dared look into the serpent's eyes.

Kiba covered his nose, sensing a deadly poison hovering in the air. "What the hell is that thing?"

"The kind of thing that Hell itself would spit out," Caliburn said somberly.

Shino looked up at the snake monster in the same passive way he would examine a bug. "I believe this is Orochimaru's true form."

"I don't care what that is. You're a murderer, Oro!" Sonic shouted and swiped the sword at him. Caliburn's blade erupted into flames. The snakes that made up Orochimaru's body hissed at the flames and shrank back.

"This is what happens to all who oppose me. This is your last chance, Hedgehog. Join me at my side and we will obtain true greatness."

"The only way you're taking me in is by swallowing me alive."

"If that is your wish. Remember, Sonic," the snake monster warned, "many snakes choose to finish off their prey underwater."

"Under-what now?"

The floor under Sonic's feet opened up, brick by brick. A rushing current rose up to meet him. Two anacondas lashed out from the water. One wrapped its coils around Sonic's waist. The other wrapped around the Black Knight. They seized their massive jaws around the hedgehogs' necks, holding them tight.

"Caught you like the rodents you are!" Orochimaru gloated. As the white snake set his eyes on the Konoha team, the anacondas dragged both Sonics under. Caliburn slipped loose from Sonic's hand and sank down into the black watery depths until its holy light vanished. With a flick of his tongue, Orochimaru commanded the floor to seal up again, leaving no trace behind but the sound of the rushing river below.

"SONIC! Amy screamed and pounded her fists on the wet stone floor "We just found him. He was lost for so long and now we finally found him. We were going to bring him back home."

"This is the only home you'll ever see," Orochimaru snarled. "Welcome to my domain. Watch as I warp the entire world to my will. Prepare yourselves to become my slaves for all eternity."

**To Be Continued**


	23. Icha Icha Rock Out Paradise!

**The Kitsune in the Leaves**

**It is with deepest honor and great pleasure that I present to you the continuing chapter of this story.**

**We have some new fanart to celebrate! Some of the most incredible stuff yet. Go to my profile and check out these pics from from DevMasters! They are awesome! Thank you so much! You have no idea how much inspiration that gives me! **

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**Kage Bijuu: Shadow really should've brought more than one mongoose. Maybe it'll come back later to help him beat Orochimaru before he takes all the chaos emeralds.**

**Stormingnight: Thanks! All Hail Shadow the mighty steed!**

**Kitsune-Super Fox: Sonic will get to unlock some very cool powers from Caliburn. We'll see what happens with Tails. That's what this chapter's about.**

**Dragon Man 180: Knuckles clearly wasn't thinking things through when he let Gai cut his dreadlocks. Luckily though, the grow back fast and Knuckles' new taijutsu skills will be able to make up for that. Sonic probably almost did die when Amy tried to ravish him.**

**Star's dreams: It is my pleasure to bring happiness to your mailbox. My heartfelt thanks for the good luck wishes!**

**Angelus-alvus: I believe that you will find this next chapter to be very interesting, too. Thanks for reviewing!**

**Spam X: Wait for the part where Knuckles opens up the Eight Gates. That nightmare will never go away.**

**Blue Mage Quartet: You are in good company. If you can finish reading this and review before the sun explodes, you are not late. I'm s oglad the pace and the sliding between silliness and seriousness is working for you. My usual thing is to plan a dead serious, grim work, and then pile in the jokes and snark as I go along. When I thought about which Konoha shinobi should be Shadow's sensei, Anko was the first to come to mind. There's just something so shadowy about her and I new she's enjoy knocking Shadow around. Amy's got an interesting story arc going for her with her new sword. **

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_The Planet Mobius has become a dark place ever since its greatest hero, Sonic the Hedgehog's sudden disappearance. After his battle against the vile serpent master, Orochimaru, Sonic handed over the role of hero and protector of Mobius to his faithful companion and best buddy, Tails. But since Sonic and the Chaos Emeralds vanished, their world has known no peace. The mysterious ninja organization, Akatsuki remains hidden in the shadows, their goal to capture Tails and murder those closest to him. _

_To rescue Sonic from the clutches of Orochimaru, Tails succeeded in breaking the barrier between worlds and sent his friends to the world of the Five Elemental Nations, while he remained behind to protect Mobius from Akatsuki. But the young kitsune shinobi finds little support as his strange new demonic powers continue to grow. Rumors abound that the young fox may use his dark powers to bring about the end of the world._

_The boundaries of space and time itself begin to unravel as warriors from the past and future arrive in this time of crisis. From the past, a younger Sonic the Hedgehog arrives with a mystical sword to free Sonic and put an end to Orochimaru's mad quest for the Chaos Emeralds._

_From the distant future, a pair of psychic warriors from a dying world arrive on Mobius. Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat's mission is to kill the demon fox before he unleashes the dark forces inside him and brings about the apocalypse._

_As Shadow, Amy, and Knuckles join forces with the Hidden Village of Konoha's Shinobi and learn new techniques, they perform a daring raid on Orochimaru's secret island base, but the Snake Sannin is cunning and he is ready for their strike. _

_Uzumaki Naruto, the shinobi that helped Sonic and Tails before, trains for the moment when he can defeat both Orochimaru and the Akatsuki and reunite with his good friends once again._

_While the war to regain the Chaos Emeralds rages on in the Five Elemental Nations, Tails prepares himself for his next confrontation against the Akatsuki..._

* * *

**Chapter XXIII: Icha Icha Rock Out Paradise**

"Yay! It's finished," Tails punched his fist in the air triumphantly, lifting up his blacksmith's goggles. "Another masterpiece!" His blue eyes beamed with pride as he gazed into the steaming pool of water. Just minutes ago, he plunged his latest sword, red hot straight off the anvil, into a pool of ice. "Fresh out of the oven and ready to go."

Suigetsu snorted. "Don't make it sound like you were baking a freakin' cake. That's my ultimate weapon you're talking about over there."

"Well, when you think about it, sword making really is just like baking a cake," Tails said. "You mix together a bunch of metals, add in chakra for flavor, apply lots of heat, and then let it cool. After that, it comes out nice and sweet. And trust me, this is a sweet, sweet, sweet sword. Plus, it's really funny when you throw it into someone's face."

Suigetsu laughed, mainly because it was Tails who said such a grim thing with a straight face. "Whatever. Can I hold it already?"

Tails reached his hand into the bubbling waters and pulled out his brand new giant sword. Suigetsu's eyes widened as Tails lifted this enormous six-foot long zanbato out of the water. It instantly brought back fond memories of Zabuza and Kubikiri Houchi with the same shape and same circular holes in the giant blade. But this sword was much lighter, both in color and weight. The dark iron that forged the original sword was replaced here with a light bluish silvery metal rimed with a thin layer of frost. The weariness that came when he wielded Zabuza's sword was absent here. No wonder Tails was able to lift it with one hand. The metallic hum the blade sang as it swished through the air was pleasant and sweet. Suigetsu at once felt in harmony and with the sword. An instant bond.

"It's so much lighter. Sharper too," Suigetsu tested it by bringing it to his mouth and licking his tongue along the blade. Tails winced as water leaked out of his cut tongue.

"The ice powers are activated on command," Tails said. "When you do that, you'll be able to convert all your suiton jutsus into hyouton jutsus. And while Zabuza's sword could regenerate itself by absorbing the iron found in blood, this sword can regenerate just by absorbing water, so you'll never have a hard time keeping it nice and sharp. And you won't need to have to constantly have it drenched in blood."

"Where's the fun in that?" Suigetsu asked in a bored tone. "And what else? What about that other thing we talked about?"

"Yeah…" Tails looked nervous. "Now don't get too crazy with this one, but I installed a missile launcher in, just like we talked about. Just press that button at the bottom."

"Really? I must see this," Suigetsu gleefully pushed the button and the giant blade's metal instantly twisted and shifted into a giant missile launcher. "Heheheeh! Sweet! I need a really good excuse to try this out."

There was a knock on the door just before it creaked open and in walked Kakashi.

"Tails, are you in here?"

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei. Good timing. I just finished my latest invention," Tails gestured to Suigetsu and his new sword.

"Invention, eh?" Kakashi asked. "That's an awfully vague term. You mean you're latest killing weapon, right?"

"Ehehehe," Tails made a goofy grin as he rubbed the back of his head. "I guess you could call it that, too."

Kakashi looked around Tails' workshop with all the different kinds of swords hanging from the walls, razor sharp blades gleaming in the shadowy red firelight of his smithy. "So you turned our airship's engine room into a forge?"

Tails nodded. "I have to keep honing my skills as a swords smith. I'm getting better all the time and I want to make sure my legions of darkness will be well armed when I release Kyuubi and begin my plans for world domination."

"Please don't joke about those things, Tails," Kakashi said coolly. "You have no idea how bad it is that people out there believe something like that is true."

Tails smile faded into a frown as he looked away from Kakashi. "Sorry, Sensei. I only say that 'cuz it makes me feel less edgy about the whole thing."

"If you're okay with taking a little time out from inventing killing machines, I would like to talk about our next mission," Kakashi said. "It's a dangerous mission, but it's one I think you'll enjoy a lot. At least I will."

"Ooh!" Tails excitedly ran to grab his forehead protector. "What kind of mission?"

Suigetsu grinned. "Karma's on my side today. Are we going Akatsuki hunting?"

"Sort of," Kakashi took a deep breath. "Tails, we're going to a concert this weekend."

Tails looked at him quizzically. "That sounds like fun…but is that really a dangerous mission?"

"It's not just any concert. Uchiha Itachi himself will be appearing in public as the star of this concert."

Tails blinked. "Wha? Itachi's a rock star? Now I'm confused."

"If you ever bothered to leave your workshop, you might have noticed that Itachi became an overnight sensation," Kakashi said. "He's the hottest thing on Mobius."

Tails still looked bewildered. "Wow, I just never would've guessed Itachi had that kind of hobby, or any hobbies, really. I thought they do, you know…evil stuff all day."

"It's a bold move by Akatsuki. To be sure, they don't usually operate this way, but that's not the shocking part. You see, this isn't going to be any old concert. It's…" Kakashi started to get flustered as the corner of his face turned red.

"What is it?"

"It's…I'm so excited just to say it…Itachi will be performing what is easily the greatest concert of all time…_Icha Icha Rock Out Paradise!"_

Tails blinked. "What?"

"Tch," Suigetsu sneered. "Are you serious?"

"It's the musical adaption to the novels," Kakashi explained. "It combines the stories of all three books together. Now this musical has an interesting history back in the Elemental Nations. It was given Jiraiya's seal of approval, but to this day, nobody has ever actually produced the entire show. Something about the experience of putting Jiraiya's epic tales of love into lyrical format is too much for mortal ears to hear. The heart just can't take it. Some died. Others went insane. Few were able to speak of the experience. The musical was quickly placed under the ban of a forbidden jutsu, along with Edo Tensei and Shiki Fuujin, sealed away never to be heard from again. But now, Itachi has chosen to dabble in these things which should not be dabbled."

Tails scratched his head, puzzled. "Sound pretty intense. You mean it's so sexy that you can die by watching it? There are things like that?"

Kakashi nodded. "If Itachi is as big a genius with a guitar as he is with his jutsus, then I have no doubt he'll be able to pull it off perfectly. You won't die, but I guarantee that you will catch a glimpse of Heaven."

"Is it a good idea for us to go?"

"We _must _go and attend this show," Kakashi said gravely. "This will be more important than any other show that will ever come out ever. And obviously we need to keep an eye on the Akatsuki, too. We must stay close to them. The entire city might be in danger."

"All right," Tails said decidedly." Let's round everybody up and—"

"Tails, I want just you and I to come on this mission. Itachi is too dangerous for your friends to handle. Also, it's more of a guys show."

Suigetsu hoisted his new sword over his shoulders. "Well, I'm definitely going. Kisame will be there and I can't wait to get a piece of him with my own sword."

"Very well. The three of us will go this concert," Kakashi agreed.

"Do you want to get Itachi's autograph before or after you kill him?" Suigetsu asked.

"Oh, please don't make yourselves known until after the first act, at least."

* * *

"Are you kidding me? You can't cancel that show on me now," a green hedgehog paced back and forth in his living room with one hand on the phone and the other running through his shaggy spiked hair. "Dude! It's too late for me to book anything else for the weekend. Who are you replacing us with? What? Seriously? Aw, dude…All right, all right…Bye." With a heavy sigh, the hedgehog tossed the phone aside and plopped onto his couch, exhausted.

"What's wrong, Manic?" a maroon hedgehog with bright pink hair stuck her head into the room to see her twin brother lying motionless, eyes lidded. "That didn't sound so good."

Manic groaned and sank deeper into his couch. "We've been cancelled, Sonia. I don't believe it. Station Square Arena. That huge gig. We got replaced by this big shot new rock star, Uchiha Itachi."

Sonia raised an eye ridge. "Uchiha Itachi? He's not a rock star. He's a member of that Akatsuki ninja terrorist organization."

"He's both," Manic said, sitting up. "That's what really pisses me off. You know Sonic Underground is going down the tubes when everyone would rather watch this gloomy guy." He scowled at the cover of the latest issue of _Rolling Stone, _which featured Itachi angrily staring straight ahead with those ridiculous red eyes.

"I'm sorry, Manic," Sonia said. "We haven't had a decent break since—"

Manic heaved a heavy, long drawn out sigh. "Since our bro, Sonic, ditched us."

The two hedgehog siblings looked around the house at all the pictures and album covers of the three of them together, Sonic on guitar, Sonia on the keyboard, and Manic on the drums. He heard the distant echo in the back of his mind of the three of them rocking out in front of thousand of screaming fans, lasers shooting everywhere, the place booming.

"…Good times," Manic said wistfully. "I miss our old band. I wish Sonic could come back and jam with us again."

"You know what the worst part of this is?" Sonia asked. "Itachi is the guy responsible for Sonic's disappearance. If it wasn't for him, Sonic would still be around today."

"Sonia, you know what we have to do? We have to crash that concert and give Itachi a little taste of some real music." Manic turned and grinned at his sister. "Some Underground music."

Sonia looked at him like he was crazy. "Crash Itachi's concert? That's crazy. Sonic fought him…as Super Sonic, and he still couldn't beat him. Itachi's tough. Way tougher than he looks."

"It's not just about us, sis. We gotta do something in case this whole concert is actually a deadly trap. It's been a long time, but damn, we're still Freedom Fighters, right?" Manic retrieved two shining medallion, one he tossed to his sister and the other he slung around his neck. "I'm going to that concert. You in?"

"Yeah. I'm in, but we'd better take this, too." Sonia tossed him a third shining medallion third medallion. "We'll take Sonic's old guitar with us."

"Yeah. We'll need all the power of rock we can get."

* * *

It was opening night at the Station Square Metropolitan Arena and giant posters and billboards of Itachi's scowling, impassive face were plastered everywhere. Everyone was babbling excitedly. People came in cosplaying as the characters from Jiraiya's books, but most were dressed up as Itachi, wearing black cloaks, scratched forehead protectors, and fake Sharingans. Throngs of screaming fangirls went insane at the slightest promise of catching an early glimpse of the Uchiha Legend. And then there were a bunch of fat greasy faced otakus waddling around in their bulging Akatsuki cloaks arguing about who would win in a fight between Itachi and Shadow.

Tonight, the Mecha Kyuubi transformed itself into a fiery red and orange super stretch limousine. It was on fire with Kyuubi chakra as it raced down Speed Highway, leaving a blazing trail of fire in its was one event that Kakashi dedided to come early for, and he insisted that they arrive in style. Tails looked out the window at the screaming mobs of fans and found it a little unnerving to see so many normal people wearing Akatsuki outfits and grimacing like Itachi. When the 100 foot limo arrived at the entrance, a red carpet folded out to the door and Kakashi stepped out of the limo wearing a black tux, trying to look as formal as he could, but still keeping the same mask on.

"It's a shame Jiraiya-sama himself couldn't be here for this," Kakashi said. "He would be so happy, I'm sure he'd be crying."

"Yeah, I wonder what Naruto would be thinking…" Tails gave it some thought as his mind started to wander.

"_Naruto!" Tears flowed down Jiraiya's face. "This is a travesty. We're slaving away out here in these deserted mountains, training our asses off while Kakashi and Tails get to have fun and see an Icha Icha concert! Damn it all! I wrote those books! I'm the genius behind it all! I deserve to be there! I should be walking down that red carpet with two voluptuous babes in my arms, laughing, giggling, and drinking all night long and making sweet sweet…ARGH! This is killing me!"_

_Naruto's face went blank with rage. "Whaaaaat! I'll kill that fox kit. Why is Kakashi-sensei being such a horrible, corrupted sensei to Tails?"_

"_Admit it, Naruto! You totally wanted to go, too!" _

"_I did! I really, really did," Naruto fell to his knees weeping openly, as did Jiraiya. Then the two embraced._

Tails shook his head. "Yeah, I don't think they would take it too well."

"Then, as the one person here who knows him best, I guess I'll just have to represent Jiraiya," Kakashi said proudly. "That makes us VIPs. I'm a little annoyed though that you guys didn't dress up nicely like me."

"You look outdated," Suigetsu said. Suigetsu of course, felt no inhibition of walking into the arena while shouldering his giant sword for all the world to see.

"Suigetsu would look like a barbarian no matter what he wore, but Tails, I expected a bit more class from you. With your powers and intellect, you're supposed to set an example."

"I'm not really into that stuff."

"That's just because you haven't gotten into the spirit of things. Tonight is a night at the opera. A rock opera at that. What other occasion is there to dress up? Look, that guy over there has the right idea," Kakashi pointed to the man at the entrance, taking everyone's tickets and offering programs. He was decked out fully in pristine white tie and tails, in a real old fashioned cut. That would have been enough to stand out in the crowd, but then he also had on an orange mask hiding his face.

"It's Tobi!" Tails yelped, but then covered his mouth when the masked nin turned his eyehole his way. "Oh no! He spotted us."

"Oi, Kakashi-san! Tails-kun!" Tobi called, waving frantically at them. "So glad you could make it."

Tails readied into his battle stance as the Akatsuki nin came up to them. Kakashi noticed and gave a brief suppressing motion.

"Relax, guys. We're not here to capture you tonight," Tobi said. "It's not like we go around assassinating people and hunting bijuu everyday. Some of us like to make a little music every once in awhile. Normally, I'm Tobi, the most eeeevil member of Akatsuki, but today, I'm the impresario for tonight's event. We're all here just to put on a show all for your entertainment. Here, look! I got you tickets. Finest seats in the house."

Kakashi took the tickets and inspected them closely, then turned to Tails. "Hmm, these tickets aren't explosive and he's completely unarmed. Nothing to worry about here, Tails."

"Enjoy the show," Tobi waved them off.

Tails growled silently as they walked past him into the grand entrance hall. "Shouldn't we…I don't know, punch him, or tie him down or something?"

"No," Kakashi said. "We can't go making a scene like that right in front of everybody. Just let him be."

Suigetsu snorted. "Bah. I'm with Tails. We should lop the guy's head off. He's just standing around annoying everyone, anyway. Hell, they'd probably thank us. I'd love to—" Suigetsu stopped suddenly and started sniffing the air.

Kakashi glared at him. "Suigetsu, I just said I didn't want to make a scene in front of everybody. What are you looking for?"

"It's Kisame!" Suigetsu shouted, going wide-eyed and hungry for blood. "He's here somewhere. I must go find him." With that, he ran off without another thought.

Kakashi shrugged. "No sense in stopping him. You know I don't feel too comfortable having him hang around. You're very chilled about it, Tails."

Tails snickered. "Do you know what it's like having Shadow as a teammate? Suigetsu's not so bad when you look at it that way."

"I see. Well, I guess it's just you and me now, Tails. Let's get our seats."

* * *

Another pair of Mobians soon arrived. Moving swiftly, they aggressively began pushing everyone aside as they their winded their way through. Tobi recognized their profiles right away as the silver psionic hedgehog and the fire throwing cat princess from the future. Silver strained his neck to get a glimpse of Tails before he vanished into the streaming crowd. Even those big, bulky tails of his were easily lost in this dense mob.

"I can just barely see him. He's heading upstairs. Come, Blaze. Let's—"

"Welcome visitors from the future," Tobi greeted them with outstretched arms. "Who woulda thought you guys would travel all the way back in time for the opening night to _Icha Icha Rock Out Paradise? _You're tickets, please."

Silver responded by grabbing Tobi by his bowtie, pulling him down to eye level. "Who are you? How do you know we're from the future?"

Tobi started to stammer and sweat as the distorted humming of psychic powers rang in his ears. "H-Hey! Easy now! I'm just the impresario. I promise you I won't muck up your timeline in any way. I…I just want to take your tickets."

"We have no tickets," Blaze said. "We're not here for the show. We're just looking for someone."

"That's right. Now stand aside," Silver commanded. "We must get through immediately."

"Sorry, but you guys still need tickets to get in. Whether the timeline is in crisis or not, I can't let such rude time travelers going around bothering the patrons. That wouldn't be nice at all."

"Aside," Silver commanded and telekinetically shoved Tobi across the room where he crashed onto the floor, head over ass. Silver and Blaze stepped past his crumple form.

Tobi grunted as he tried to recover. "No way am I letting you guys in that easy."

Blaze spun around and hissed at him, bearing claws wreathed in flames.

"Eeep! Fire!" Tobi shrieked away and ran outside for cover.

"Sniveling coward," Blaze smirked as the flames died away.

Tobi kept running and screaming out of the arena and straight into oncoming traffic.

"Sonia! Look out!"

The two Hedgehogs were cruising down Speed Highway, pumped up for the concert and making good time until the masked man suddenly appeared in their headlights. Sonia screamed as she slammed down the breaks, bringing her motorbike to a burning, screeching halt, but not before knocking Tobi into the air and sending rolling across the asphalt.

"Sonia, we just killed a dude."

"No, he's alive," Sonia said, pointing to the man breathing and struggling to his feet. "Lets just get him off to the side of the road."

"Whoa, dude's made out of some tough stuff," Manic said as he helped Sonia drag the guy to safety.

Ow…my back," Tobi groaned as he lurched to his feet. Grabbing his bent over back, he slowly limped towards the arena.

"Are you gonna be all right, dude? My klutzy sister hit you pretty hard," Manic said, earning a slap to the back of his head.

"Is there a crack on my mask?" Tobi asked.

Both hedgehogs shook their heads.

"Oh, goody. No harm done," Tobi said cheerfully. "You guys didn't hurt me too bad and you even stopped to help, so why don't you take these backstage passes? You get to meet and chill out with Itachi, hang out with our lovely porn stars, and join us for the after party. You guys must be rock stars yourselves, so you'd be more than welcome. It'll be a blast, as my senpai would say."

Sonia and Manic stared down at their backstage passes in disbelief.

Tobi looked at his wist to look at the watch he wasn't wearing. "Uh-oh. I gotta find my senpai or else he'll beat me up even more badly than you guys did. Whenever _he _runs me over with a vehicle, he always packs it up with explosives first. The show will start soon. See ya."

Sonia scratched her head as the masked man ran away in a panic. "What a weird guy. What's with that mask?"

Manic shrugged and flashed a carefree smile. "He's a ninja. Who cares? I'm glad we ran him over. Now we can go backstage. Can't wait to start sneaking around the place."

"Hold it," Sonia pulled him back by his vest. "I don't like this. There are ninjas hiding around backstage. We could be walking into a deathtrap."

"I know. Ninjas and porn stars make for a deadly combo. That'll make sneaking around a lot more exciting."

"This whole Icha Icha craziness is really getting in my nerves," Sonia crossed her arm, grumbling. "Manic, You'd better not go messing around with all those skanky girls backstage."

Manic grinned. "Not to worry, sis. I'll try not to get distracted, hahahahahaha. Really, all I wanna do is snoop around and see what kind of surprises the Akatsuki are hiding. Let's split up."

Before she could really respond, Manic dashed off into the crowd. Sonia sighed. It was times like these she wished she took up Knuckles' offer of llving a boring life on the Floating Island.

"_Ninjas are bad enough. How many more perverts are going to showing up here?"_

* * *

Kakashi and Tails grabbed themselves the two front row box seats. Besides being the perfect view of everything, taking the high ground would prove to be the best position to react if Akatsuki made any sudden moves. Kakashi sat back and began leafing through the program while Tails hurried in, carrying an enormous tower of snacks, easily twice his size. He plopped down next to Kakashi and began munching and slurping noisily.

Kakashi rolled his eye. "Tails, you've got popcorn, soda, chilidogs, fries, every type of candy…I shudder to think what kind of chakra all that stuff is going to metabolize into."

"Really yummy chakra?" Tails asked, holding out a chilidog. "You want anything, sensei?"

Kakashi waved his hand dismissively. "No. I don't want to take my eyes off this stage for a second."

Tails shrugged and popped the whole chilidog into his mouth. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen you eat before, Sensei."

"Do I look like I'm starving?"

"Mno," Tails said with his mouth overflowing with chili.

"I don't think you're starving, either," Kakashi fixed him a stern look.

Tails swallowed. "Okay. I'm just a little nervous. I haven't been out in public in awhile and I'm still a fugitive. Plus, this place is crawling with Akatsuki."

"Don't be nervous, Tails," Kakashi smiled as he ruffled the fur on Tails' head. "You're more likely to get in trouble for being an underage minor at a sex concert, than you are for being a wanted fugitive. As for Akatsuki, trust in the training and the special preparations we both worked on. Right now, just try to enjoy the show."

The house lights dimmed as the massive red curtains parted. A hush fell on the house. A single shaft of light descended on the center of the stage where the world got their first real glimpse of Uchiha Itachi. His black cloak was shinier than normal, the red cloud patterns were covered in glittering rhinestones.

"Good evening, Mobius," Itachi said softly. A cacophony of applause erupted from the audience. Itachi waited calmly for dead silence to return. He began with a slow introduction, gently picking each string, one by one. The music that filled the air was soothing and calm. Heavenly even. It lulled the audience into a state of meditative serenity. It looked like Itachi was surrounded by a holy, mystical light, a divine being descending from the heavens, his guitar an instrument of the gods.

Kakashi leaned towards the edge of his seat, gripped with anticipation. Tails started to yawn and almost fell asleep right there, but Kakashi gave him a sharp nudge.

"Watch every move he makes," Kakashi whispered. "This is part of your training."

"Sorry," Tails yawned again and rubbed his eyes. "The music is just so relaxing."

Itachi briefly lowered his shades to give the crowd a glimpse of his blood red eyes. The shuriken shaped tomoes began to spin. A mix of horrified and amazed reactions filled the crowd. Then, he began to sing.

"I will now tell you a tale never before heard on Planet Mobius. This is a tale of a gutsy ninja on the quest for true, eternal love. There will be romance, heartbreak, passion, revenge. And death. There will be lots of death." With those ominous words, the stage went black and Itachi vanished in to the background.

Deidara swooped down from the ceiling on his bird tossing out handfuls of multicolored orbs as he zipped across the stage.

"KATSU!" he shouted. Suddenly, the whole house erupted with deafening explosions and dazzling fireworks. In the center of it all, Itachi himself exploded into hard rock mode, sliding to the edge of the stage. The stadium went wild with thunderous applause.

"This is going to be so awesome!" Kakashi squeed.

**"Amaterasu,"** Itachi said. The stage went ablaze with a ring of black fire. Itachi stood in the center, playing passionately as the flames danced and roared around him. Kakashi watched and listened with rapt attention as the pages of Jiraiya's book came alive as Itachi sang every word in graphic detail. A single tear rolled from Kakashi's eye.

"What if he uses Tsukiyomi on us?" Tails whispered.

"He won't. He already used his Amaterasu just to light the stage on fire and he's pouring all his energy into that guitar. I don't think he'll have the strength for Tsukiyomi."

"Aren't there supposed to be girls in this?" Tails asked.

"Patience, Tails. We have to build up to that. It's not like Itachi will be able to keep them away for long."

* * *

Deidara returned to his dressing room where he sat in front of his brightly lit mirror and took a moment to readjust his hair while preparing for the next explosive scene. It felt good returning to the hushed environment back stage. Hearing a million people praise Itachi's art wasn't the kind of thing he liked to hear. But wait for the final act, he reminded himself with a dark smile. That'll be a bang.

"Nobody will ever be able to top those special effects, un," Deidara said proudly as he chewed up a fresh batter of clay from his hands. "Soon they will see what real spectacle is all about."

Kakuzu burst through the door with a package under his arm. "Deidara, we're short an females. Put on this dress and get out there," he tossed up a very fancy, frilly white dress.

Deidara looked at him incredulously. "No. I'm busy working on special effects, un. Don't you have enough porn stars already?"

"Hidan…sacrificed a few," Kakuzu pointed over to the girls' dressing room. Deidara grimaced as he saw a thick pool of blood seeped from under the door.

"Why's that my problem, un? Find another substitute. Get Konan."

"We need someone who can sing well."

Huh?" Deidara arched an eyebrow. "When have you ever heard me sing, let alone sing well?"

"Just do it!" Kakuzu threw the dress at him and slammed the door. Just as Deidara tried to collect his thoughts together, Kakuzu burst in again. "And do something about that mop of a hairdo." He slammed the door again, almost breaking it off the hinges.

"This is so stupid," Deidara muttered as he threw off his cloak. He let down his hair and tied it up into a more classical looking ponytail, and stripped down to his underwear. "I have wear this lingerie, too?"

"Hey, Sonia? Are you in here?" Manic opened the door to the dressing room only to catch Deidara struggling to fit into his dress.

Manic froze. His shocked face turned red.

"…"

Deidara screamed.

"Uh…Sorry for the confusion. My bad," Manic slowly backed away, still overcome with shock.

"GET OUT!" Deidara slapped Manic across the face, sending him staggering.

"Sorry, lady," Manic ducked his head and ran for his life as his pursuer gave chase through the narrow hallways. He had to squeeze just to fit that enormous bell shaped wedding dress and his giant poofy sleeves through the narrow corridors.

"I'm not a lady!" Deidara nearly tripped over his gown in the chase.

"It's cool, dude," Manic said, dodging explosions and splintered wood. "I once had to wear a dress, too."

"I'll kill you, you little green shit!"

"Deidara! Stop screwing around and get on stage," Kakuzu ordered. "Your numbers up."

"Damn," Deidara swore as he dropped the last of his bombs and let the green hedgehog get away. He sighed wearily, lifted up the frills of his dress and daintily ran on stage where he was greeted by a storm of applause and cheers. The bright lights were blinding and the fires around him were hot. With no practice, having not read a word of the script, he stood there, sweat pouring down his face, dumbfounded in front of thousands with no clue what to do.

"Senpai!" Tobi ran up and grabbed Deidara's hands as the two waltzed together around the stage.

"Tobi, what are you…?" Deidara stared at him in utter confusion as he found himself swept away in Tobi's arms.

"Dance with me, Senpai!" Tobi sang. "It's the opera segment. We're on."

"I'm supposed to dance with you?"

"It's okay, Senpai. I'm acting in this show, too. I play the guy who's hopelessly in love with you, your character I mean, but no matter what I do, you always spurn my affection. My mask is worn to hide my pain and anguish I feel at this cruel, unforgiving world," Tobi's voice quivered. "Without you, Senpai…I'm nobody…I don't want to be anybody. Heartbreaking, isn't?" Tobi sobbed uncontrollably.

Deidara rolled his eyes and gagged. "Tobi, you are complete ham."

"Come on, Senpai. It's art. You love art. Dance with me artfully! Back, back, forward, now twirl! Your gorgeous, Senpai!" Tobi went a little overzealous with the twirling, and the bottom of Deidara's dress brushed against the black flames. Tobi gulped and hoped that Senpai wouldn't notice.

"Something wrong, Tobi? You seem distracted."

"No, Senpai. You're dancing great. Just remember to—OW!" there was a loud crunch sound. "You're stepping on my toes."

"I'm not used to these glass slippers, un."

"Sing a little higher, Senpai."

The spotlight followed the pair as they danced around the stage. The music got soft and slow while the lights dimmed and the stage was lit with the gentle twinkling of starlight. A hint of sentimental magic lingered in the air.

"Look, Tails," Kakashi pointed down. "The first of the many females has appeared on stage. What an angelic voice that lovely blonde has."

"That's Deidara in a dress," Tails said flatly.

There was a long moment of silence. Kakashi looked at Tails, he took a closer look on the stage, and then turned back to Tails.

"…Tails, You just ruined the best night of my life. I'm never taking you to any shows ever again."

"Whatever," Tails yawned and rested his head on his hand. "This is pretty boring."

The music began to swell to great epic heights as Tobi got down one knee and presented a beautiful, sparkling diamond ring to Deidara.

"Senpai-chan, will you marry me?" Tobi said in a strained voice, on the verge of crying. Deidara couldn't control the blushing.

The music stopped. The audience waited in baited breath for Deidara's answer.

All was silent.

"NO!" Deidara slapped Tobi across the face, and then punched him hard in the gut. As Tobi crumpled to the floor, Deidara started to storm off the stage.

Tobi curled up into a ball groaning in pain, clutching his stomach and gasping for breath. "That was great acting, Senpai," he wheezed. "But…your dress."

Deidara stopped as he heard the crackling of flames and smelled smoke behind him. Suddenly feeling much hotter, he turned around. His beautiful white dress burst into black flames.

"MY DRESS! OH, FUCK ME! Damn you and your Amaterasu, Itachi! Damn you! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

The whole house burst out laughing as Deidara frantically ran around the stage, screaming and flailing his arms in terror.

"Just take it off, Senpai…" Tobi called, running after him. The crowd clapped as both Akatsuki exited stage left and the lights went down, signaling the scene's end.

Tails giggled uncontrollably. He grabbed his sides and fell onto the floor, legs kicking in the air, laughing so hard there were tears flowing from his eyes. "Sensei! You were right. This show is so genius! Does this happen in the book?"

Kakashi shuddered. "Not the way I imagined it. I'm just glad Deidara's gone."

As the curtains parted and the next scene unfolded, Itachi returned to center stage.

Kakashi breathed a sight of relief. "Good. Now the real girls can come on." Now it was Itachi and a harem of real women this time all dancing around him wearing the finest silk kimonos in every color imaginable, embroidered in gold, silver, and jewels.

"Now, it's really gonna get good. This scene is one of my favorite parts of the novel. Here, Itachi has finally joined his entire harem together, but one of them is secretly a ghost, so to find out which one, they must all pass through the test of fire."

Itachi rocked his red guitar and the jet black flames burst around him. He wasn't just playing his guitar anymore. He was _shredding _it. Epic, sweeping music flowed out of his guitar, the kind that could only be reserved for playing in the divine presence of Amaterasu, the sun goddess herself. Now it was released into the world by Itachi for all mortal ears to hear. Everyone was utterly transfixed, spellbound by its power. The girls sitting in the front rows instantly became pregnant.

The more hardcore Itachi's rock, the higher the black flames grew, the wilder and crazier they danced. The flames whipped around and caught the dancer's kimonos, burning them to ashes that slowly crumbled away to reveal to reveal Mobius' greatest super models and porn stars, all dancing around in black bras and thongs. They didn't run or scream as the flames engulfed them. They merely moaned seductively as the flames as hot as the sun itself licked their nude bodies, and beads of hot sweat rolled down their rounded breasts and shapely long legs.

Kakashi, Tails, and everyone in the house felt themselves being sucked into Jiraiya's super sexed up universe, as if they were all dancing amidst the fire. The story was alive in the fire, in every plucking of Itachi's guitar, and in the non-stop boob jiggling. Tails felt his mouth going dry and made a desperate grab for a drink.

"I feel a bit bad for you, Tails," Kakashi said. "You're a little too young to really appreciate the magnificence of this show."

The Amaterasu fires flared up and singed someone's bra off.

Tails spat out his soda. "Oh, I think I can appreciate the magnificence of _that!" _

"I've never seen such precision with Amaterasu," Kakashi commented from above. "Itachi's gotten much stronger. He can control the heat to such a fine degree that the fires can crawl around their skin without burning. He even genjutsued everyone to remove their fears."

"How could you be analyzing jutsu during a scene like this?" Tails cried, his face getting hot and red. A strong urge suddenly came over him. "This is so…AH! I feel like I'm gonna explode!"

No longer able to sit still, Tails leaned over the balcony, his tails wagging furiously. The show went on like that for another two hours. More Itachi and his mad guitar, more black fire, more sexy girls dancing…

"Enjoying it now, Tails?"

"I'm having a hard time just watching this—" A spark fired in Tails' head. "Hey! I should go down there. I know Naruto's Sexy no Jutsu. I can probably turn into the sexiest girl there."

"You just want to go dance with all the pretty girls, don't you?" Kakashi said dryly.

Uh-huh," Tails was grinning and snickering madly now, showing his fangs. "The big finale's coming up. I need to get up close!"

"Hold on just a minute, Tails," Kakashi pulled Tails back before he could jump. "It looks like Itachi is about to do something." Below, Itachi made a few hand seals.

"**Oiroke no Jutsu!"**

Itachi vanished in a cloud of smoke. In his place, there stood a beautiful, sexy, naked, female Itachi with long raven hair that haloed her pale face under the bright lights. Once the mist faded, her guitar was all she had to cover her up and teasingly hide her very bouncy breasts.

"Thank you very much, everyone," the girl said in a sweet, honeyed voice. At last, Itachi smiled openly with large pretty eyes, that replaced the usual narrow, piercing Sharingan. Itachi-chan had big, bright, sparkling eyes that could light up the heart and soul of anyone who looked into them."We are now about to begin the grand finale."

Both Kakashi and Tails' eyes were bulging out of their sockets. "Itachi-chan is the sexiest girl I've ever seen…" Tails could barely breathe. Itachi looked directly up at Tails. She winked up at him and blew a kiss his way. Tails actually saw a little heart float up towards him.

"Guh!" Tails reached his limit. Blood gushed out of Tails' little black nose like a geyser. He crashed onto the floor and passed out with blank, but very happy, very smitten look on his face.

"Oi," Kakashi sighed. "Poor little guy fainted. I can't blame him, though. Itachi has mastered that particular jutsu to its farthest extant. Still, if this all part of Akatsuki's plot, he's taking it awfully far."

Kakashi passed a chilidog under Tails' nose. The sharp aroma of hot spices brought him back to consciousness. Tails slowly opened his eyes and saw the vague outline of Kakashi's face.

"Kakashi-sensei…I…I…think I'm going to die."

"Take it easy, Tails," Kakashi got the fox back in his seat. "You lost a great deal of blood, but we can still make it to the end of the show. Remember that Kyuubi has experienced over a thousand years of sexy encounters. Draw upon those experiences and keep it together."

"Ugh," Tails buried his face in his hands. His ears drooped low enough to almost fall off his head.

"Tails, what's wrong?"

"Itachi gave me a nosebleeed!" Tails cried. "I'll never be able to fight him seriously now!"

Kakashi nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I can see how that is quite a dilemma. Don't let it get to you that much."

Tails groaned as he felt a sinking feeing in his stomach and almost passed out again, but then his ears perked to the sound of rumbling coming from all around, shaking the arena. On stage, Itachi's harem fell on top of each other, but Itachi herself did not flinch.

A shockwave erupted from backstage, nearly splitting the floor in half into two jagged sections. When the dust settled, a green hedgehog sat behind his drum set, banging away with his drumsticks.

"YEEEEAAAHHH! Sonic Underground is back! Hey, Itachi!" Manic the Hedgehog shouted. "I've been waiting to…Huh? Wasn't Itachi here just a minute ago?"

"I am Itachi," the sexy girl proofed back into Itachi's true form.

"More dudes pretending to be chicks? Where the hell am I?"

"Leave us," Itachi said to his harem. All the girls picked up whatever scraps of clothing they could find and scampered off the stage, leaving Manic and Itachi alone to face off against each other.

Kakashi rubbed his chin. "Hmm, I don't remember this character in any of the novels."

"That's Manic!" Tails shouted.

"Oh, so you have read the books."

"No. That's Manic the Hedgehog. He's Sonic's brother."

Manic and Itachi stood on the stage while the black fires crackled around them.

"What do you want?" Itachi asked simply.

"Two things," Manic said. "I know you tried to kill my brother. We need to resolve that. And two, I'm here to show you the true meaning of rock and roll."

"And what do you know about rock and roll?"

"For one thing, it's not about flashy pyrotechnics and huge, loud explosions. And it's definitely not about skirt chasing, cross dressing perverts."

"What is that guy talking about?" Kakashi murmured.

"Nobody else can see because they're blinded by your music," Manic said pointing his drumstick at Itachi, "but I know the truth. You might look like a rock star, but you're really just a murderer. You didn't come here to entertain," he swiped his arm, gesturing to the audience. " You're actually here to slaughter every single human and Mobian in this house."

The entire audience let out a loud, collective gasp, but nobody moved an inch from their seats.

"What a wild accusation. Why do you believe that?" Itachi asked.

"Come on! Admit that this whole Icha Icha crap is a front. It's not hard to imagine that you'd kill everyone, just like you tried to kill my brother Sonic. You're the reason he's gone."

Itachi closed his eyes and smiled faintly. "Hn. I too lost my brother. I empathize with you."

"I don't want your empathy. I want you to take a hike back to Akatsuki-ville, Evil Black Cloak Land, or wherever the heck you came from. Mobius had enough troubles before you guys showed up."

"I have no intention of leaving in the middle of my own concert," Itachi said stiffly. "Not when we're so close to the end. If you want me gone, then you will have to kick me off this stage yourself."

"I was waiting for you to say that," Manic twirled his drumsticks together and turned to the audience. "Hey, Station Square! This is how you really rock!" He flipped his drumsticks into the air and brought them down pounding hard on the drums. A seismic wave tore up a pathway across the stage as it surged towards Itachi, filling the air with splinters of wood and shards of metal.

Itachi tossed his guitar in the air, jumped out of harm's way, caught it and resumed playing the concert in midair. Manic pounded harder, sending shockwaves upwards. Itachi soared on a wave of fire and came hurtling towards the hedgehog with his guitar wreathed in black fire. Like a flaming axe smeared in blood, Itachi swung his guitar into Manic's drums. Earth and fire collided with a deafening bang. The drums blasted apart and Manic went sailing into the air.

"Holy shit!" Manic saw that he was heading straight for those black fires. He grasped for the curtain rope and swung across the stage, his red and white shoes just barely licking the flames. He swung past Itachi and as he passed by, swiped the shades right off the Akatsuki nin's face. He put them in himself and flashed a cool smile as he jumped off the rope.

"Nice shades, dude, Mind if I borrow them?"

"…?" Itachi glared at him. "Your drum's seismic waves are nothing more than B-rank Doton jutsus. Now even that weapon is destroyed. You have no other techniques to any shinobi training to speak of. You came here for nothing."

Manic simply shook his head and flashed his coolest smile. "No! I didn't come here for nothing. Somebody's gotta stand up and make some noise to tell you that even though Sonic's gone, there are still Freedom Fighters who have the will to resist you. Not everyone on Mobius is gonna let you Akatsuki guys walk all over us."

"There's nothing to resist," Itachi said. "Everyone here tonight has come out of their own free will. You may join me too if you like. I can make you into a better drummer. I can restore your band's glory. All I ask is that you help me capture the two-tailed fox."

"Like hell I would!" Manic spat. "I'll never help you capture Tails. Sonic would never forgive me."

"Your loyalty sounds misplaced. Your brother abandoned your band just so he could go running off with that fox. Why do you think he hasn't come back to join you after all these years? Sonic feels closer to him as a brother than he does to you."

"You smashed my drum set, but I have back up," Manic pulled out another shining medallion. Rays of light emanated from the shimmering medallion, radiating in all directions. Within the orb of light, the medallion morphed into a purple electric guitar that materialized in Manic's hand.

"What is this?" Itachi asked unfazed.

"This is my brother's guitar." Manic said proudly. "If my brother ever abandoned me, I would never be able to play it. Let me tell you, Itachi. I think someone on this stage abandoned his brother, but it's not me. Let's settle this and see who really is the better rocker, So Itachi. Are you ready to rock?"

"…"

Manic found himself easily annoyed by the unmoving Itachi. "Say something, dude! Damn! How could a rock star have so little passion? I said _Are you ready to rock?" _

"…"

"I'll never understand how everyone can be such fans of someone so one dimensional. All right! I'm gonna rock!" Manic plucked the guitar strings, shooting out lasers that darted across the arena.

* * *

Tails felt his fingers digging into the balcony railing.

"Kakashi-sensei! Manic doesn't stand a chance. I've got to get down there before Itachi kills him."

"Just grab Manic and get out of there. Do not fight Itachi yet," Kakashi warned.

"Got it," Tails nodded and flew out of the box seats and started downward, but he stopped mid-flight at the sound of an odd cackling noise coming from above. Tails looked up to the ceiling. Up above at the top if the arena, Deidara lurked in the shadows of the top frameworks. He held in his hands a freshly made sculpture of a man with giant hands and a screaming face.

"It's a bomb!" Tails shouted. "He's planning to kill Manic and blow up the whole house."

"Let's see how you like this kind of percussion, drummer boy," Deidara dangled the bomb to drop ready to drop down onto Manic's head, a hundred feet below. Tails flew onto the wooden rafters and joined Deidara.

"Tails? I'm pleased to see you here," Deidara greeted him with a sly smile.

"And I'm pleased to see that you're not wearing a dress anymore," Tails shot back.

Deidara's smile faded. "Hmm, do not test me, you little snot. I've had a really bad day. The only way to rightfully make up for that is with a huge explosion."

Tails slowly inched closer. "Don't do it, Deidara."

"The grand finale requires that the show go out with a bang. We have reached the climax," Deidara held his arm out and let the bomb drop.

"NO!" Tails spun his tails and dove after the bomb. He gritted his teeth, surging forward with his arms outstretched, his fingers just barely in reach of it. No way to make in time. Tails shut his eyes, bracing himself for the devastating explosion.

Nothing happened.

Everything stopped. The bomb just hovered there in midair. For a moment, Tails felt that time and space had frozen around him. He sensed a faint pulse of psychic energy resonating around the arena He glanced into the audience. The source had to be there. There, standing in the crowd, he caught a glimpse of the silver hedgehog, holding his arm out, his face strained in intense concentration.

"Man, I'm glad that guy showed up," Tails sighed happily, grabbed onto the clay bomb and infused it with his lightning chakra. Tossing the dread bomb aside, Tails flew up to the frameworks to face Deidara.

"How did you manage to stop that bomb in midair?" Deidara asked.

Tails huffed. "I didn't do it. It was…a friend."

"Who? I demand to know."

"Just somebody who's seen way too many explosions destroy the things he cares about."

Deidara shrugged and went back to molding fresh clay in his hands. "Your loss, brat. Had I let that bomb go, with Itachi distracted, it might've had a chance to kill him. Now you and I are both stuck with him, hmm."

"You were going to kill everyone in this arena, even your own teammate? I never knew you Akatsuki losers could stoop that low!"

Deidara laughed. "Of course! Since the second I joined that Akatsuki, my goal has been to kill those Uchihas and that cursed Sharingan. Those eyes have a made mockery of my art. They see through everything with their jaded gaze, killing off all the imagination and all the possibilities, all the surprise! When those eyes bore into you, it's like you lose all freedom of expression. You can't imagine how useless it makes you feel when that eye looks at you and laughs at your own creations as if they were nothing."

Tails relaxed his battle stance. "I think I can. I think I know exactly how you feel."

"What did you say?"

Tails' smiled. His eyes warmed up. "Sure. I love explosions, too. Believe me, I know what great art they can be. When me and Sonic would adventure together, literally every five seconds, there would be another explosion going off nearby."

Deidara was stunned. Nobody had ever spoken to him like this about his art before.

"I guess I can see why you're so devoted to this kind of art. After all, living in a world where nothing ever blows up could get kind of dull. I can't let you use that art for murder, but I get it. I really do."

A smile curled around Deidara's lips. "What in interesting little demon you turned out to be, un. You're nothing like the others I faced. You have that same yearning, that artist's soul. I knew that ever since our last battle."

"I know what it's like to have your creations stamped on and laughed at. I've had to deal with it my whole life. Nobody ever appreciated all the awesome things I made. Not until Sonic came and encouraged me to become the greatest inventor on Mobius. Then Sasuke came and I saw in those eyes of his the same thing you did. That same hatred and contempt. He beat me down and laughed at me, and sent me and my plane out of the skies. So I know exactly what it feels like to made useless by those eyes."

"Feels like they're staring into your soul right before ripping it out of your heart, doesn't it?" Deidara said softly, his killing intent dropped.

Tails nodded. "You're not alone, Deidara. Everything you said about Uchiha and the Sharingan, Kyuubi said the same thing to me. He hates the Sharingan for taking his freedom away. I also want to beat the Sharingan more than anything. Too bad we're enemies, huh?"

Deidara smiled to himself. "So even the Kyuubi had his amazing chakra brought down by the Sharingan. Who would have guessed?"

Tails looked at him with a genuine smile on his face. "I like creating stuff too. I love crafting all kinds of cool swords. That's my art. It might not be strong enough yet to beat the Sharingan, but someday, I'll get the chance to invent something that'll make sure nobody would ever be able to use their genjutsus to take someone's freedom away ever again. I'll learn the secret to beating them. And then, I'll dispel all the illusions from the world."

A nasty chuckle let out from the mad bomber.

"Very passionate. Just like last time. Don't get me wrong, kit. You've got the soul of an artist, but you and I can never join sides. You're still too soft. I can see it in your eyes. You're trying to fight it. How are you going to dispel these illusions and free everyone and you won't even free yourself? You're not willing to let go and abandon yourself to the explosive chakra just dying to burst out and consume everything."

Tails' eyes hardened. He raised his guard, fur crackling with lightning. Killing intent rose in both shinobi.

"But you'd like to, wouldn't you? Even for just a little while. I can see that in the depths of your eyes lies an abyss of hatred and evil deeper than the ocean. Look below you, kit. Those sheep down there you saved aren't exactly your biggest fans. Itachi could convince them all to hand you over to us on a sliver platter. Even if you saved this city a dozen times, it wouldn't help. You're not just a two-tailed freak anymore. You're a _dangerous_ two-tailed freak."

A lightning fast tail whip struck Deidara in the face with a sharp _crack!_ Deidara went back reeling, almost toppling off the thin, wooden beams and down onto the stage a hundred feet below. He held his balance, swaying his arms, laughing all the while.

Deidara wiped the blood from his split lip and grinned as he saw Tails' chakra crackle with lightning and then bubble with fiery red chakra. "Hmm, Itachi planned to use his Sharingan to bring out your Kyuubi chakra, but it looks like I can do it myself. Maybe I should become the next Kyuubi jinchuuriki and show you just how to use all that chakra. I can barely imagine the kind of art I could create. A C9 bomb created by Kyuubi's chakra. Think of the explosions. With a little effort, I could blow up this very planet!"

"Kyuubi will never accept another human to be his host. Not that you're really human, anyway."

"I'm whatever I want to be. My art allows me to recreate myself every moment."

Deidara tore open his shirt where his hidden chest mouth lay and pulled out his horrible of a thousand gurgling mouths and slurping tongues. He lashed out with a sideswipe of his sword. Tails jumped out of reach. He kicked Deidara in the head, bounced off, and vaulted up to the ceiling where he grabbed onto the hanging light fixtures.

Deidara swung, unleashing a beam of explosive azure light. The explosion of chakra blasted a hole through the roof, narrowly missing Tails. The cool night winds rushed through Tails' fur. Deidara's cloak fluttered like mad as he climbed onto the lights.

"Your lightning techniques are a pain to deal with, but my sword will prevent you from disabling my bombs. Any kind of chakra you use will only be absorbed by me."

"Absorb this!" Tails kicked a spotlight over into Deidara's face. He screamed as a sudden intense flood of light stabbed into his eyes, blinding him.

"Gah! I can't see!" he cried. Tails lashed out with a tail whip that sent Deidara tumbling off the fixtures. He would have fallen and crashed onto the stage below had he not snagged a clay tendril onto Tails' leg.

"Hey! Lemme go!" Tails yelped as Deidara tried to pull him down.

"Ha! I'm not letting you fly away. I'm taking your two-tailed kitsune butt down with me!"

The lights broke apart and Tails and Deidara both came plummeting all the way down. They crashed onto the stage, Tails landing hard on his head. Manic and Itachi put an end to their duel as everything came toppling down. Even Itachi looked surprised at what dropped in.

"Uuughhhh…my head." Tails moaned as he got to his feet, one hand pressed on his aching skull. He wobbled around the stage in a daze, completely surrounded by destruction.

He heard murmurs coming from the audience. Must have been a lot of confused people out there.

"It's Tails!" Someone in the crowd shouted.

He heard a few remarks from the audience.

"_I had no idea that Sonic's sidekick also starred in smut shows."_

"_Well, where do you think he goes when he's absent from those Sonic games?"_

"_I always knew there was something funny about that fox boy…."_

"_Hmph! If I had to see a porno with Mobians, I'd rather it be with Sonic and Shadow."_

"_This is supposed to happen, right?"_

"_Is this the end?"_

"_I don't even know what this story's about anymore…"_

Tails was hit with the sudden realization that every single person in the packed audience was watching him.

Tails' face went blushing red. Never before had he stood in front of so many people.

"Ummmm…Hi, everyone..." Tails smiled and waved weakly.

Tobi darted onto the stage with a microphone in hand and gestured dramatically. "It's okay, folks. It's all the part of the show! Now it's Tails vs. Super Star Uchiha Itachi and the entire Akatsuki, with the entire world watching!"

Tails gulped. "The entire world…watching me?"

**What's Next...?**

* * *

**The newest characters, Manic and Sonia the Hedgehog are from the Sonic Underground cartoon. This story doesn't take place in that universe. The only thing you have to know is that Sonic has a brother and sister and they were in a band and their instruments can shoot lasers, among other things. I don't expect them to have big roles for the story, but I like having everyone stop by. I was a bit nervous about including the more obscure characters, but I think they'll fit into the story great.**

**Next Chapter will be a big climactic one. I'm gonna work hard on this one, but I also hope to update like a beast soon.**


	24. The Grand Finale

**And the story continues...**

**The Kitsune in the Leaves**

**Chapter XXIV: The Grand Finale**

Tails' tails flapped around behind him on the stage floor, like each had a mind of their own. He was nervous, woozy and disoriented, wobbling around in a daze thanks to the pounding headache he got from landing on his head. The black blurry shapes of five Akatsuki members entered onto the stage, surrounding him on all sides. Kakuzu and Kisame came in from stage left and right to join up with Itachi. Deidara struggled to his feet with Tobi's help. He was quickly shaking off the effects of the fall and glaring at Tails with explosive killing intent. Tails looked into the eyes of the ninjas and saw them all filled with the same killing intent. Not a surprise as Tails managed to humiliate and royally piss off half the members of this organization. Now they were all banded together against him.

This was going to suck.

_"Terrific. How am I supposed to fight them all at once in front of all these people?"_

Inside his pounding head, Tails heard the voice of the Kyuubi bubble up.

**"Tails, I can't work with your chakra if you're going to develop a case of stage fright. Snap out of it!"**

"What am I supposed to do about it?"

**"Get down there and snack on a few humans. Or go into the spotlight and say something. Anything!"**

The crowd was still murmuring, many unsure what to make if this was all an act or not. Tails scratched the back of his head, walked up to the edge of the stage, smiled, and cleared his throat.

"Um…" his mouth went dry. His voice quivered as he spoke. "You're probably all wondering what I'm doing up here. Well, that's a really interesting story…"

"Kick his ass, Itachi!" a drunken heckler shouted and lobbed a beer bottle, beaning Tails in the head, almost knocking him out right there.

**"Tch. Tough crowd, kit. You sure you don't wanna eat them? You'll feel a lot better."**

Tails rubbed his very red and bruised forehead. "Owww…that really hurt. This is a really bad situation to be in."

"You see, Tails-kun? The people of this city are on my side," Itachi said. "You are alone in this fight."

"Hey! Can the gloom and doom talk, Itachi," Manic stood up and threw his arm around Tails, pulling him close. "I'll stand by with Tails through anything you throw at us. Sonic's little bro is my little bro. You got that?"

Tails looked up to the green hedgehog, a small tender smile curled around his lips.

"Manic...I…thanks."

"Hmph. A musician of your caliber hardly counts," Itachi said dryly.

"What did you say? After I heard your crap, I felt that music would be dead to me forever. Seriously, dude."

"It seems the majority of Mobius does not agree with you," Itachi gestured to the crowd and with a flick of his hair, he surrounded himself with a majestic halo of bishie sparkles.

Manic's fist was visibly shaking with rage. "Yeah? I could pull that off too if I wanted to…"

Tails pulled on Manic's arm. "Manic…wait. I'm the one Itachi wants. I don't want you to get killed because of me."

"Dude! I'm not gonna bounce and leave you here alone with these douchebags! Sonic Underground doesn't roll that way. Just wait till Sonia gets here, and then we'll really start to rock and roll! We'll rock and roll all night if we have to."

"You brought Sonia here, too?" Tails asked. "Where is she?"

"Don't count on her arriving," Itachi said. "Your foolish sister is backstage. In grave danger."

* * *

Sonia snuck her way through the darkened backstage passage, tiptoeing towards the big red curtain. The music died down awhile ago after she heard a sudden crash. After that, a whole lot of commotion. People threatening to kill each other.

One of those voices belonged to Manic.

"Oh, Manic. Please be all right." Sonia bent down and gingerly peeked under the curtain to see the stage. She angled her line of sight just right to see Manic standing beside Tails. Manic was alive, but they were both surrounded by five ninjas in black cloaks. There was nowhere for the two of them to go. She gripped her medallion tightly, getting ready to jump in there.

Then, something made her freeze in place. A dark presence and a menacing shadow fell over her, one that filled Sonia's heart with fear. Her hand clutching the medallion was shaking. She dared to turn around and look up at the black robed figure that towered above her.

"What's this? Snooping around?" the shadow said. He had the same billowing black cloak as the rest of them. Another one of those Akatsuki killers. Sonia's eyes widened in horror as the Akatsuki drew his monster sized scythe, the three crimson blades still wet and dripping with fresh blood. Sonia broke into a cold sweat when she saw that scythe and the look in the man's eyes. There was a hunger for killing in the man's violet eyes that she had never seen in any of her enemies before. Trembling, Sonia clutched her medallion and held it close to her heart.

The silver haired man smiled and presented his own medallion of a circle with a triangle inside. "Whatever you're holding on to you that's so precious, you can forget about it because this is the only symbol you need to know about. This is the symbol of my god, Jashin. This is true power. And I am Hidan, his high priest, your deliverer and redeemer."

Hidan raised his scythe, grinning with the thought of what would happen when his three blades would carve apart that terrified hedgehog girl. Sonia crouched low on the ground as Hidan swung his scythe. She just dodged under the blades. The heavy scythe was slow and she was Sonic's twin sister. The advantage was hers. While Hidan recovered, Sonia flipped into the air, high out of the scythe's range.

"It's not going to be that easy," Hidan smirked and swung a metal cable hidden in his scythe. It snagged Sonia's foot in midair and flung her backwards, smashing her into the wooden wall with bone crushing force. Sonia coughed up blood and slumped to the floor. Sharp pain lanced up her spine. The dark priest cackled as he stepped closer to her crumpled form. With the hedgehog girl injured and cornered, he raised the scythe again. Sonia opened her mouth to scream, but the pain in her chest was too great and only a muffled squeak came out.

"Now, you will be redeemed!" Hidan announced and sent his scythe swinging down hard.

Sonia pulled the medallion off her neck and as her last ditch effort, she threw it into the middle of the scythe's swinging arc. The tip of the blades sliced through the medallion. It cracked open. All the hidden energies inside her magical keyboard released in one explosive instant. A flare of purple light beams stabbed into Hidan's eyes. The Akatsuki nin growled and staggered back. Flashing red and white spots clouded his vision.

"Gah! Frikin' laser beams! Can't see shit!" Hidan waved his scythe around in a berserk rage, smashing everything apart with abandon. Shredded wood and scattered splinters flew everywhere. Sonia shielded her face, ran past him and dove under the curtains onto the stage.

"Manic!" Sonia cried and ran into her surprised brother's arms. Hidan growled and tore through the curtain and stumbled onstage behind her.

"Sonia! Chill, sis. We're all together now."

"So. Hidan has arrived," Itachi said. "I believe we are all assembled."

Tails squirmed uncomfortably upon seeing Manic's sister sobbing into his arms, looking like a complete wreck. Tails wasn't surprised. Not even a lifetime of traveling around the world fighting against Robotnik's forces could prepare anyone for this group of killers. Tails had been training to fight them, being on the run from them for months, watching their every move, and he still had no idea what he was doing.

"Do we really have to do this in front of all these people?" Tails asked Itachi.

"There will be no chance to escape this time," Itachi replied. "It's the end of the line, Tails."

Tails sighed glumly. "Fine, but if that's how it has to be, than at least let Manic and Sonia go. This is about us. Not them."

"Had they not interfered, they might have been spared," Itachi said, "but it's too late for that now. You will have to suffer watching them die as we bring you in."

"Ha! I told you before. I'm not leaving!" Manic punched his fist in the air. "Right, Sonia? We'll fight 'till the last hog standing."

"As shall I." A pale green light manifested in the middle of the stage. All eyes turned to the light to see Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat phased in before them all.

"You are the time travelers?" Itachi asked, unfazed.

Silver nodded. "Yes. And my journey to the past has shown me clearly now who the true enemies of the future are. It was a mistake coming after the kitsune. But you," Silver pointed his finger at Itachi, psychic power smoldered in his green eyes, "I will have no regrets killing you."

Kakuzu's oily black tentacles slithered out of his robes and waved around his body anxiously awaiting some chest ripping fury.

"A psychic heart. That will add nicely to my collection."

Silver extended his open hand towards the audience. A shimmering wall of force sprang into being at the edge of the stage and soared up to the ceiling.

"This psionic barrier can withstand tremendous damage. It will keep the people safe from harm," Silver told Tails. "You need not worry about innocent bystanders in this battle, my good friend."

"We are good friends?" Tails asked him.

"Yes, Tails," Blaze said. "We would be honored to fight by your side…if you would allow us."

Tails smiled and nodded as he charged a Chidori in his hand. Blaze did the same with a fireball in her hand, and Silver's hands pulsed with psychokinetic force. The three of them were about to leap into the fray when his ears perked up to the sound of rumbling. The entire stage area was shaking.

Tails looked up. The ceiling was cracking and caving in. Something big, something huge was on its way.

"I know what that is..." Tails whispered to himself.

CRASH!

The arena ceiling above exploded. Tails ran and ducked for cover from the falling debris as his airship, the Ocean Tornado descended from above. It was bigger than ever before. Every single inch of the metallic behemoth was armed with artillery. The cheery blue paint job was replaced with a menacing black sheen. A pirate flag flapped at the top showing Tails' two-tailed insignia in place of crossbones with a demonic looking fox skull on top.

"Heh. Good timing…" Tails muttered. "Cavalry's here."

It was already a heavily armed vessel before Tails got his chance to tinker with it. Now it was a massive warship that overshadowed the entire arena. Steam hissed out of its engines and the entire structure rumbled with destructive power. Cannons and guns pointed downwards with the Akatsuki members in their sight.

"Avast, you scurvy Akatsuki scum!" Marine the Raccoon stood at the helm. She looked different now, wearing a black pirate captain's hat and a long black and gold captain's coat that flapped in the wind behind her. "Meet the upgraded Ocean Tornado. Call this the Black Sea Destroyer Tornado…of Death!"

"Who is this loud person?" Itachi asked in a tired tone.

"Just a pesky raccoon who befriended the kitsune," Kakuzu said. "Her only interest to us is the large bounty on her head and she's managed to amass a large quantity of treasure."

"That makes her your target, Kakuzu," Itachi replied.

"Wait a second!" Kisame called out to the raccoon. "Aren't you the little tanuki that's been tailing Suigetsu? I believe you guys have something that belongs to me. I'll be coming aboard to get it."

"Don't even try," Marine yelled down. "This isn't just any airship. Thanks to Tails' modifications, there'd be no deadlier warship that ever sailed the seas or skies of Mobius!"

Hmph. Obnoxious brat," Kakuzu lashed out with dozens of tendrils that latched onto the ship and cannons. With surprising strength, the thin strands crushed the metal and tore them loose and pulled with enough force that Marine almost lost her balance.

"N-no way!" With sweat pouring down her face, Marine leapt back away from the tentacles. "That bloke's not flogging me tonight!"

"There's a bounty on your head. For piracy. Dead or alive. I plan to collect you…" a black tentacle lashed out from behind with frightening speed. Kakuzu's slipped around her neck and pulled tighter until it made a loud, sharp SNAP! Marine's flailing body went limp.

"…dead."

Kakuzu retracted the black strands. "Now for that treasure."

Marine's lifeless body melted into a pool of water.

Kakuzu's eyes widened. "Mizu Bunshin? Who taught her that?"

Kisame couldn't hide back the smile on his face. This was far too amusing. "Heh, I got a pretty good idea."

"Kisame!" Suigetsu rushed onto of the shadows with his new sword drawn at the ready. "I've been waiting for you."

"Do tell!" Kisame said in mock surprise. "I know how badly you've been hankering for a rematch. Not sure what you've got against Akatsuki, though, to show up with such bad timing."

"I've got nothing against Akatsuki," Suigetsu said. "I just want to fight you and you alone, Kisame. Of course, if you guys capture Tails, I lose my favorite weapons designer and I'm not gonna get to test out cool shit like this!"

Suigetsu's sword morphed into a giant rocket launcher and he fired the missile point blank into a surprised Hidan's exposed chest.

"Oh, fu—" Hidan's curse was cut short by a deafening burst. A geyser of blood and guts erupted where he once stood and splashed all over Tails, leaving behind nothing but wisps of fine red mist. The tattered remains of his burnt cloak fluttered across the stage.

Yech…" Tails wiped the blood out of his eyes and flicked away some thick squishy substances hanging from his ears and nose that felt like wet brains and spleen. "I should be used to this by now, but I'm really not."

Suigetsu huffed. "What are you complaining about? You should be happy I tested your missile design for you. Now you see how effective it is."

_Yeah,_ Tails agreed. _It's effective all right. Super effective! Like in Pokémon. SUIGETSU used ROCKET LAUNCHER. It's super effective. HIDAN fainted._

Suigetsu rested his weapon on his shoulder, now back in sword form just where he liked it. "See? One down already. Five left. Easy."

"Hold it, you fuckers! What's all this 'one down' shit you're spitting? I ain't dead yet."

Tails stared down wide eyes at the floor in shock. Hidan's vibrating vocal cords were lying in a pool of blood, still forming words and swearing at them.

Suigetsu laughed at the profanity spewing pool of blood. "Ha! This dipshit can trash talk us all he wants. You can't swing that scythe around much when you're the consistency of ground chili." At will, the rocket launcher morphed back into a sword, the blade pointed at Kisame. "And you're next, Kisame! Tonight's menu is shark fin soup with a side of ass kicking sushi, served on a nice bed of fuck you!"

Kisame gave a bored shrug. "Didn't know you were such a connoisseur. You're gonna fight with me with that dangerous thing and I don't even have a sword? That's hardly fair, you cheap bastard."

"Kisame, your sword is on board that ship, along with all their treasure," Kakuzu said. "I am going up there to claim it."

The shark man's face lit up. "Yeah? Count me in. It is getting a little too crowded on this stage for me. I'm in the mood to raid little miss pirate girl's hoard myself."

"Like hell you will!" Suigetsu snarled and leaped after the two Akatsuki ninjas.

Watching his teammates swing onto the ship with an amused smirk, Deidara summoned his clay bird.

"Hmm, time to take over this ship, I see. Tails, I'm sure you have a very sophisticated arsenal in this airship. While Itachi captures you, I will commandeer your vessel and finish the job of destroying this city," Deidara declared as he hoped onto his clay bird and flew up to the ship. "The last thing you'll see before you die will be Station Square going out with an epic bang, mmm!"

"Aw man! Why do my weapons have to be so awesome that everyone has to use them for evil?" Tails muttered to himself with his head hung low. "I gotta stop him, but I can't—"

"Hey, Tails!" a familiar voice called out from above. "We're here it fight too!"

"Cream? Hinata?" Tails' face was beaming when he looked up to see his friends waving at him from the ship. "You're gonna fight against Akatsuki?"

"Yeah! You trained me, remember?" Cream said. "Of course I'm gonna help you fight! Just tell me what to do."

"Okay! Deidara's gonna attack the city, so don't let him do that. You got that weapon I built for you?"

"Yeah, and Hinata's with me, so I'm ready! I'm not scared at all." Cream said proudly.

"I'll be there to help her, Tails-kun, so don't worry. And we'll stop the Akatsuki's attack. I promise." The Ocean Tornado's engines shuddered and lifted off to the sky. "It's taking off. Let's hurry, Cream."

"Wait, Hinata!" Tails called out and threw something into the air. "Catch!"

Hinata caught it and unfolded her hand to see a small red key.

"But Tails-kun…this is…"

"I showed you how to use it. Don't worry. You'll do great!" Tails flashed her a thumbs up and nice guy pose.

"Hinata nodded. "Hai…, Tails-kun."

Tails looked to Blaze and Silver. "You guys think maybe you can lend them a hand? There's three tough Akatsui guys up on that ship."

"Will you be all right alone with Itachi?" Blaze asked worriedly.

Tails smiled and flashed her a thumbs up. "Yeah."

"Then we'll do it, but first…" Blaze bent down and gently placed her hand on Tails' shoulder. It was soft and warm to the touch. "Tails, we are so sorry we tried to kill you. We should have known right when we first met that, demon or not, there's no way you could be responsible for the horrors of our future."

"Think nothing of it," Tails said, still smiling. "What made you change your mind?"

"We've been fighting against the greatest evil Mobius has ever faced, and in that war, I've never met someone brave who cares about his friends as much as you do. So please take care of yourself, Tails. Don't let Itachi capture you or our doomed future might really come to pass."

"Don't worry. That future of yours is never gonna happen. Thumbs up nice guy promise. kay?"

"Let's hurry," Silver said. And the two of them flew towards the ship.

Now it was just Tails and Itachi facing off on the giant sound stage.

"Tails dude. It'll take a few minutes for me and Sonia to repair our instruments," Manic called out. "Can you hold off Itachi for a minute?"

Tails nodded with a cool, confident look in his eyes, but inside, he was worried.

"Where's Kakashi-sensei? I could really use his help now. Hope he's not mad at me for taking on Itachi."

"Come, Tails-kun," Itachi beckoned. "Now that there are no more distractions, it's time you met your true destiny."

Tails strode forward towards the Uchiha. He looked directly into that Mangekyou Sharingan and strode forward with steely determination. A blazing Chidori crackled with power in his hands. "Here I am, Itachi. I'm the kitsune you've been hunting all this time. Like you said, this is the end of the line. I'm not running anywhere."

Itachi nodded. "Yes. I see. And you won't be running anywhere ever again."

Tails took another step. Suddenly, his Chidori fizzled away into nothingness and Tails fell flat on his face, right by Itachi's feet.

"Wha…?"

"Get on your knees," Itachi commanded.

Tails obeyed and fell to his hands and knees. He struggled with all his might to rise, but an unseen force forced him down hard, as if invisible chains were shackling him down.

"Tails! What's wrong?" Manic cried. "Get up and fight!"

"I can't move...His Sharingan is way too powerful… I can't even touch him."

Itachi lifted a single finger. Tails braced himself for a sudden attack, but Itachi merely pointed out to the audience.

"Look out past that stage, Tails-kun. What do you see?"

Tails had just enough freedom to turn his head to the right to look at the audience.

The Sharingan.

They all had it. Every single person packed in the arena sat there with dead blank expressions, eyes bulging out wide. Everyone possessed the red eyes of the Sharingan, all completely taken over.

"They're all mind controlled zombies!"

"The music I played tonight was an elaborate genjutsu," Itachi said. "One that ensnares anyone who listens to it. Everyone here tonight is now a devoted follower of Akatsuki. Icha Icha Rock Out Paradise was broadcast worldwide, listened by billions through TV and the internet. These weak willed foolish people of Mobius are my slaves. We have at last arrived at the next stage to dominating Mobius. Everything you and Sonic and your Freedom Fighters have fought for will now be undone this night. Soon, the Leader will be crowned as God and ruler of this planet, and your demonic soul will belong to us. Konohagakure and the Five Nations will be next."

"So it was true. Your whole concert...was just a big lie." Tails was inwardly cursing himself. "…And we all fell for it."

"You are also under the power of my Sharingan. You and the Kyuubi are at my command."

Dark clouds of red chakra started swirling inside Tails' eyes. "All these people came out because they're your fans. How could betray them all like that?"

"I told you. Everything you saw tonight was an illusion. This concert was a technique to overtake your will. Nothing more. Just the will of my Sharingan overtaking yours. As you fall, Mobius falls with you."

"Um...Itachi? I get how your concert was all a big genjutsu, but why did you turn into a girl earlier?"

"From now on, whenever your mind will stray toward such perverted thoughts, a mental image of myself will appear, a rather harrowing experience, I would imagine. You will be disoriented. You will not be able to properly mold chakra and will be defenseless against my techniques."

"Wow, you just think of everything, don't you?"

"There is only one last thing to do. Now I command you to release your Kyuubi form and destroy everyone in this arena. Slaughter these mindless sheep and reduce this city to ashes."

"Why?" Tails couldn't believe how calm Itachi remained when he said that.

"A message to the world that we have tamed the Kyuubi, that these people were fools to think they could place their faith in a demon such as you, and to show that anyone who opposes our rule will face death and destruction."

"No…I'll never do it."

"You are completely under my spell as is the Kyuubi. Now transform. Release the full force of your ancient demonic power. Kill them. Devour them. They never cared for you, anyway."

"NEVER!" Tails let out a monstrous roar.

"You may be able to resist for a short while, but not for long. Now, I will play the song that will release your true form," Itachi picked up his guitar and proceeded to rock out a tune that was blacker than the blackest black metal in his arsenal. A flock of black ravens swarmed out of his guitar and circled around him so fast it looked like Itachi was nearly swallowed up in a chaotic storm of blackness. As Tails' hellish red chakra began to seep out of his soul and take over, Itachi undid his ponytail and began head banging furiously as he played to summon forth the dark forces inside the kitsune.

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Itachi growled.

"Kyuubi…Don't do it!" Tails pleaded, straining to regain control. "Don't go crazy and kill everyone while Itachi head bangs and does heavy metal screams over it!"

"This isn't the first time that the mighty Kyuubi has fallen before the Sharingan," Itachi said, regaining composure. "It happened before sixteen years ago," Itachi said. "Uchiha Madara controlled the Kyuubi with his Sharingan and summoned it to destroy Konoha. I have finally reached the height of his level. The same thing will happen tonight. Kyuubi will attack Station Square just as he did many years ago. I remember that night well."

"Kyuubi!" Tails delved deep into his mindscape to see the Kyuubi. The great demon fox was breathing heavily, steam pouring out of his mouth and nostrils. Then Tails saw his eyes.

Kyuubi had the Sharingan.

"No, Kyuubi! You can't!" Tails banged on the walls of his cage, tear welling in his eyes. "Fight back!"

"It's too late, Tails…Look."

Then Tails saw a reflection of his own eyes. The Sharingan was there too. The tomoes in his eyes were spinning faster and faster. Tails gripped his head in his hands, unable to hold back the searing pain of Itachi's chakra invading his mind. A swarm of ravens swooped down from everywhere and filled head with chaotic blackness.

"I'm sorry, everyone…" Tails said weakly, then felt himself falling, pulled into a deep, dark dimension where the moon was full, but the clouds were pitch black and the sky was red as an ocean of blood.

The arena heated up with lightning. A chaotic, surging matrix of lightning bolts formed an aura around the kit. A third tail sprouted forth from Tails' body, then a fourth one. His fur darkened blood red. His facial features grew more feral as razor sharp fangs protruded from his mouth and claws tore through his gloves. Storm clouds gathered above. Tails raised his hands upwards. He let out a primal roar that shook the building as a blast of infernal lightning shot into the sky. The winds and clouds churned together and a fierce hurricane started to brew. One that covered the city in darkness and rumbled with unholy power.

"It begins...," Itachi said.

"NO!" Tails roared and cast his hellish gaze on Itachi. "You haven't mastered me yet, Uchiha Itachi. You want me to slaughter everyone? I'll do it. I'll do it gladly. But first, I'll start with you!"

"Is that so?" Itachi said with mild amusement.

The last bit of Tails' sanity snapped and with claws outstretched, he lunged for Itachi.

* * *

**Kisame**

"This is the place." Kisame kicked the heavy door down and found inside the ship's darkened laboratory. There on the far wall was an aquarium. And there inside the tank was its sole occupant, a sentient sword swimming back and forth through the water.

Kisame pressed his nose to the glass and smiled. Not his usual killer smile, but a soft smile for greeting an old friend.

"Did you miss me? That mean little kitsune didn't treat you badly, did he?"

_"GIGIGIGGIGIGIGIGI…"_ the sword, Samehada gurgled its reply.

Kisame nodded in agreement. "Yes. You're right. But fear not. I have come to take you home and I will never let you be separated from me again. We will be bound together again once more and forever," Kisame declared as he smashed through the glass. The waters rushed out and the shark skin sword felt into his waiting hand.

"Hoshigaki Kisame is back to full strength!" Kisame lifted the sword up high and roared ferociously.

"I see you're ready, Kisame," Suigetsu appeared through the doorway, the tip of his sword pointing at Kisame.

Kisame laughed and spun around, sporting his bloodthirsty grin. "Look at yourself, Suigetsu. You are such a sword whore. Maybe it's about time I slapped you around silly fore being the whore you are, you whore."

The two swordsmen approached each other ready to duel, but Kisame felt a strange tingling in his sword. Something crazy was happening outside. Something huge. As if the entire city was being blanketed with a dark veil of chakra.

Very evil chakra. The kind that could only come from one place.

So, Itachi's really serious about all this. That'll make things interesting. Won't it, Samehada?

"I asked you a question, Kisame," Suigetsu snarled impatiently. "Are you ready to fight or not?"

Kisame shook his head, then grinned. "No, but I am ready to feast."

"Then feast on this!" The metal of Suigetsu's sword twisted and shifted, transforming itself from a giant mystical blade into a giant hi-tech rocket launcher. A missile just like the one that vaporized Hidan exploded forth and rocketed towards Kisame's head.

Kisame caught the missile in his free hand and laughed.

"You had one chance to catch us all by surprise with this toy, and you used it up. The same trick won't work twice."

"That was just to warm you up a bit, Kisame."

"You want to heat things up, eh? Here. Catch."

Kisame casually tossed the missile back to Suigetsu.

The explosion that ensued blew the lab to pieces. The blast propelled the two swordsmen up to the top mast of the ship. Both stood precariously over the thin wooden beam with little room to maneuver, their massive swords drawn. The demonic black hurricane swirled directly above them. The ocean churned into a raging maelstrom far below. Unforgiving winds and rain pounded away at them. Suigetsu flicked away locks of his icy white hair and squinted hard through the storm to keep an eye on his opponent. He knew he was at a disadvantage against the shark man's incredible senses in this situation. He had been in many sword fights. This one, without a doubt, was going to the toughest sword fight of his life.

Samehada shook with excitement in its owner's hands. There was so much chakra in the air, it was like a drug for Kisame. A lightning bolt streaked down from the clouds. Like a lightning rod, Kisame's sword caught the bolt and soaked in all its power. Its scales glowed with power and channeled its current into Kisame. Electricity seeped through every pore of his body. It poured through his eye sockets. Lightning crackled through his teeth.

"Now then," Kisame's voice rumbled, deeper than before. "About that feast…"

Suigetsu dug his feet into the beam and leveled himself as well as he could. A blow from Kisame would be strong enough to send him flying across the city easily if he relaxed his guard for one second. Suigetsu's own sword flared with freezing icy blue flames that wavered up and down the silvery blade. Their swords met and clanged together with the sound of a thunder clap. Usually when their swords crossed, sparks would fly. This time, a full blown lightning storm flashed every time their blades met. It was blindingly bright and hellishly hot for one split second, and deathly cold and utterly dark the next.

Light and shadows. Yin and Yang dancing, pushing and pulling back and forth as the swordsmen did their deadly dance. Electricity surged from Kisame's sword into Suigetsu's, giving his blade a ghostly aura. Suigetsu kept pounding his sword against Kisame's, hoping to disrupt his footing and throw him off the narrow beam. As Suigetsu's sword cut through the air, the rain froze into ice needles, raining down on Kisame. The air itself went frigid to the point where they could taste frost in their teeth and their swords hardened with ice crystals. Every clash of their blades met with an explosion of blinding lightning, crashing water, buffeting winds, and frigid ice. Their fight was not just a meeting of blades, but of the primal elements crashing and colliding into each other.

"All this effort for a sword?" Kisame said. "Is that what you're fighting for? Kinda sad, isn't it?"

"I figured you of all people would understand, but no. That's not the only reason. I'm an animal lover at heart. I've grown quite fond of my Mobian friends."

"Bah! You? The murderer of the Mist?" Kisame scoffed.

"It's true. Now shut up. You're distracting me."

Suigetsu pressed on the attack with full force, but Kisame eased up and feinted backward. Samehada gurgled to signal to its master that it was full. Kisame grinned and disappeared in a cloud of mist. He reappeared behind Suigetsu. With a fiendish laugh, Kisame reared Samehada back and hammered the sword with a thunderous blow. Suigetsu's brand new sword shattered into a million gleaming pieces, and threw him off balance. For a split second, Suigetsu saw Kisame's ghastly grin reflected in the mirror surfaces of a thousand broken shards. Now with Suigetsu prone, Kisame sprang forward while twirling his sword. He swung the blade through Suigetsu's neck, lopping it off clean off his shoulders. Suigetsu's head let out a terrible scream as it went flying into the air while his headless body plunged off the mast and over the boat where it was swallowed by the ocean maelstrom.

"That was a short fight," Kisame relaxed his sword on his shoulder. "I almost thought—Ah!" Kisame yowled as he felt something like a dozen knives tear into the side of his face.

Suigetsu's head. It came back. He was still alive and his severed head lunged for Kisame's face, biting into it and rending its flesh with his killer teeth.

"Ah! Ah! Off my face!" Kisame grabbed the head and tried to pry the thing off, but Suigetsu held an iron grip with his jaws and dug deeper into Kisame's flesh, a maniacal look in his purple eyes as he tore through the cartilage in the shark man's face.

"See?" Suigetsu gnarled through bits of ragged flesh and drizzling blood. "No sword. No body. I can take you on with just a head. I'll gut your face. I'll fillet you alive with just my teeth! You're dead, Kisame!"

"Get off already!" Kisame finally managed to pluck the head off his face, but Suigetsu kept on snarling and gnashing away at him like a piranha on crack. Having had enough, Kisame dropped the head like a football and kicked it away into the storm.

"I'll get you again, Kisaaaaaame…!"" Suigetsu's shouted before his voice faded in the howling winds.

"Good riddance…" Kisame muttered as he put a hand to the right side of his face. A good chunk was now missing, bitten off. His gills were all mangled with dark blood welling from the wound, smearing half his face red. "Now let's see how Itachi's doing—eh?"

Kisame was ready to turn to leave, but then something rose up to block his path. The shards of Suigetsu's broken sword hovered in the air and swirled around him, glittering like diamonds in the dark. They materialized into the form of a human with long black hair, and long flowing moss green robes. The face was covered in a mask. Kisame instantly recognized the white mask as belonging to the hunter nin of the Hidden Mist Village.

"Well, whaddya now? Suigetsu's sword was alive too. I must have pissed off the ghost living within," Kisame said as he approached the haunting spectre. "But just not any ghost I see. I recognize you. Aren't you the one that used to follow Zabuza around? Haku or something wasn't it?"

"Yes," Haku said softly. "I was his partner in life. Now, I have been brought back to this world to side with the two-tailed kitsune in this fight. I cannot allow your men to possess him."

Kisame chuckled. "Is that so? Zabuzua must be getting really lonely in Hell all by himself. Why don't you go back down there and visit him? Maybe I can send you there, hmm?"

"Once your organization is broken and the kitsune is free, my spirit can be at peace and reunite with Zabuza. Until then…"

Haku gathered together in one hand a globe of freezing arctic chakra and ice crystals that glistened like diamonds.

"…I will show you what Hell is, Hoshigaki Kisame. Let me show you, beneath the fiery pits lie the frigid icy wastes of Hell."

"I guess I should count my self lucky that it's not Zabuza I'm facing. Now that's a tough opponent. He had the chakra of a demon."

"Yes, but I have spent the after life swelling within the soul of a demon. I'm not as soft as I was in life."

"Oh? Then show me."

**"Haryuu Muukou!" (Devestating Ice Tiger)**

Haku unleashed an arctic blast of ice and snow that took the form of a huge white tiger. It glared at Kisame with eyes burning of cold hellfire. Letting out a mighty roar, it launched itself at Kisame with claws outstretched and its gaping maw wide open, going for the kill. Kisame already had his hand seals ready.

**"Suiryudan no Jutsu!" (Water Dragon Bullet)**

Kisame countered with a dragon made of water that slithered up and went for the tiger's jugular. The tiger and the dragon collided in the air, circling each other, tearing and rending through the other's chakra formed bodies. But Haku's demon fueled tiger of icy hell prevailed as it icy claws rimmed in blue flame slashed its way through the dragon's liquidy neck. Haku's tiger ripped the water dragon apart and blew it apart into icy shards, then plowed on for Kisame. The giant dire tiger pounced on him, its ice claw raked into Kisame's flesh.

Kisame howled bloody murder as the full force of a massive blizzard blasted through him. It froze his insides and beads of solid ice blood fell from his wound. Pinned under the ice beast's paws, he made a desperate reach for Samehada. He heaved the sword at the tiger's head, crushing its skull into pile of ice chunks. While he struggled to get up, Haku was already hovering above, anther ice jutsu forming in his hand.

**"Hissatsu Hyoso!" (Certain-Kill Ice Spears.)**

No time to dodge or block. Before he knew it, a giant ice spike materialized in midair and lodged into Kisame's chest.

"What-whatever happened to those little senbon needles? I would've preferred getting hit by a few of those," Kisame said, spitting up blood from his mouth.

Haku said nothing. He spun around and kicked the end of the ice spear, driving it deeper into Kisame, forcing him to topple over the railing. Kisame was sent overboard, falling into the churning maelstrom.

The puddles of water that rained on the deck slowly formed together and took the shape of Suigetsu's form. He peered over the edge of the ship where Kisame took his fall.

"He lives. But for now, it's over," Haku said.

"Damn!" Suigetsu grumbled. "Now I have to jump in there to grab Samehada before it gets lost in the sea forever."

"Ignore it. You already have a fine sword to wield. It will take me only a minute to return back to sword form."

"How come you were able to overcome his jutsus? You were never this powerful, were you?"

"I share a portion of the Kyuubi's chakra," Haku said. "I've been dwelling in his host's soul for quite some time now, helping him to control all that chakra. It's made me stronger than I ever was in life. Now you too have a share in that power."

"So that means there's Kyuubi chakra in my new sword, eh? Very interesting."

An ear piercing scream came from somewhere inside the ship. Suigetsu knew exactly who it came from.

"Terrific…" Suigetsu groaned.

"Who was that?"

"That was Marine…" he said. "Looks like recovering Samehada from Kisame's dead fingers will have to wait. Time to take to take care of the next Akatsuki guys, then head back to the arena."

Haku enveloped himself in a white cloud of ice and snow, transforming into the form of the giant frozen sword.

* * *

**Kakuzu**

Kakuzu bashed his iron arm through the wooden doors that led down to the cargo hold at the bottom most layer of the Ocean Tornado. A magnificent sight stood before him. At last, after a miserable day of organizing and pouring an unforgivable sum of money into Itachi's stupid concert, this all made up for it. Kakuzu laid his greedy eyes on one of the biggest treasure hordes ever collected. The chamber was filled with piles of gold, silver, and precious gems that sparkled and shined in the dim torchlight. He mentally calculated it all to be worth hundreds of millions of ryou.

Kakuzu, the grimmest, and most seriously composed of the Akatsuki allowed himself a small chuckle as he picked up the gold coins and jewels and let them slowly sift through his fingers.

"All this money…" he could barely even breathe normally. "…it's all mine. Mine!"

Silver the Hedgehog stepped through the battered doorway to find the cloaked ninja huddled over the pile of treasure, chuckling to himself. He scowled upon the ninja with disgust. "Look at this greedy bastard," he said to Blaze. "Another example of the traits that lead to ruin in the future."

"The future is all about money," Kakuzu said as he slowly rose up to his full imposing height and turned to the hedgehog and cat, leering at them with those eyes, the colors of puke green and blood red.

"Money is worthless in our future," Silver said. "Demons have taken it all."

Kakuzu nodded. "It is as I suspected. Hell also runs on money."

"Then I'll be raiding the vaults of Hell itself!" Marine declared. She leapt put of nowhere her cutlass at Kakuzu. "Listen here, you brigand! I'm the Captain of this ship and I'm keeping every last one of these coins, so get your grimy, greedy tentacles off my booty or die!"

Kakuzu couldn't give less of a crap. "You can't be serious."

"Oh, no? Blaze! Light me up!" Marine commanded.

"What?"

"Like this," Marine swiped her cutlass over Blaze's hands. The blade burst into flames. With shrill battle cry, Marine charged and leapt at the masked ninja, slicing away at his lashing tentacles. At the sight of her flaming sword, Kakuzu launched a dozen more tendrils and snared the raccoon in midair.

"Quit trying to pilfer other pirates of their hard, honest work! Go hunt down your own treasure, mate!" Marine shouted as she kicked and flailed in the air while being hung upside down.

"Your head is also worth something to me," Kakuzu said. Tendrils wrapped around her neck ready to pop her head off like a clipped flower.

"That's enough! Marine get out of the way," Blaze ordered and fired a round of flaming missiles. Tossing Marine aside, Kakuzu dodged the attacks as the fireballs filled the room. He moved way faster than he looked and maneuvered through the incoming fireballs, but that huge mass of tentacles got caught in the flames. With an annoyed grunt, Kakuzu easily cut the charred tentacles away while flipping around the chamber.

Focused on the blasting fireballs, Kakuzu barely sensed the silver hedgehog teleporting from behind. Silver was flying in right on top of him now, manifesting his psychic soul knife. With lightning speed, he stabbed the Akatsuki nin through the back.

"Getting this close was the wrong move, hedgehog. Even you will not be able to evade my tentacles in this enclosed space."

"What if I went into the space in between spaces?" Silver teleported out of reach of Kakuzu's writhing strands. Silver blinked in and out of existence, striking everywhere, from every direction, his mystical blade effortlessly sliced through Kakuzu's iron skin. Thick black blood sprayed freely and sizzled on the burning walls. Silver appeared directly above, lunging down for a finishing blow. The green blade slashed through Kakuzu's shoulder and cut diagonally through him. Kakuzu collapsed to the floor into a pool of blood and a pile of dead tentacles.

"You're much more bloodthirsty than I thought," Kakuzu said. "I would love to claim that heart of yours."

"How about if I take your heart?" Silver reappeared right above Kakuzu and shoved his psychic soul knife into the Akatsuki's nin's chest until seeped out of the open wound. Silver felt something beating inside. "This must be your heart," he plunged the green blade in deeper. Kakuzu groaned as Silver plucked the still beating heart out of the man's chest.

Silver stared in wide eyed horror at he monstrosity that twisted and squirmed in his hands. I was the strangest, most alien looking heart he had ever seen. Glistening black tentacles, drenched in slime and blood slid in an out of its arteries yet the heart continued to pulse in his hand, exuding black ochre with every beat. One side of the heart was covered in a white and red mask that depicted some sort of animal's face.

"What's this? A mask?" Silver asked. There was a twinkle in Kakuzu's eye, like he was smiling under that mask. Then Silver heard a click and the mask's mouth opened. Flames gathered from within. Silver flung the mask aside and dove for cover just before the mask spewed forth a cone of fire that engulfed the room. Silver rolled across the floor, ears ringing from the sudden blast. The entire treasure chamber was aglow with burning, roaring flames.

Silver stared down at his white glove, soaked in black blood, still dazed with disbelief. He actually cut the man's heart out of his chest, and yet, that same disembodied heart threw a fireball at him.

Kakuzu stood up and started to slowly open his cloak. He walked around as if the gaping hole in his chest meant nothing. "You're too dangerous for me to hold back my true powers, time riders." His cloak undone and tossed aside, Silver, Blaze, and Marine could only stare in horror. They could see now how all those sword slashes that would have butchered a normal creature couldn't kill this ninja. From the looks of it, he had already been sliced apart many times before. The man's body was stitched up everywhere with four different masks surgically sewn onto to his back. There was something moving under his flesh, as if there were living creatures swimming under his skin.

"If you wish to take a heart, you must destroy it first," Kakuzu said.

The stitches that held his skin together started to unravel. Kakuzu groaned as the things lying underneath started to bulge out until his back exploded violently and a whole mess of disgusting inky blackness spilled out and stretched out across the room. Four monstrous beasts rose up, each wearing a different animal mask. The air grew dark and heavy with so many different kinds of chakra mixing together. The tall, lean monster with a yellow, horned mask buzzed with an electrical current crackling around its body. Fiery heat radiated from the second fat, bloated monster with a red mask. Then, there was a smaller beast that crouched low on the ground on all fours with a blue mask. Silver caught a glimpse of a fourth mask hiding inside Kakuzu's chest.

Blaze's skin started to crawl as she watched the monsters crawl out of the ninja's back and rise to their full heights, oozing with black blood. "Wha-what kind of monster is he? He's not even remotely human."

"If I could only have your heart, I imagine I too could wield those impressive psionic powers," Kakuzu said. "For nearly a century, I have sought the strongest shinobi I could find, those whose mastery over the elements were unmatched, and by stealing their hearts, I claimed their powers for myself. The next step will be to take your heart and then master your unique skills."

"We can't beat him until we kill all five of those hearts," Silver said, watching the movements of each monster.

"Watch closely," Kakuzu warned.

The piles of gold coins started to shake. A single black tentacle burst out of the treasure heap and wrapped itself around Silver's waist and threw him towards the monsters.

**"Raiton: Gian!" (Lightning Release: False Darkness)**

The tallest of the monsters with the yellow mask released a blinding flash of lightning that struck Silver square in the chest. The blast blew the hedgehog across the room, sending him crashing to the ground in a smoking heap. Lightning crackled along his fur. Had his defense not been up, Silver would've been reduced to a charred skeleton. Everything in sight was going black. Perhaps this why the technique was called "False Darkness." A lightning blast so bright that everything else is dark in comparison.

"I kept you alive so that I can harvest your still beating heart from your bleeding chest," Kakauzu said. " A single black tendril over his chest. The tip of the tentacle waved in front of his face, its tip sharp to a needle point.

"Year heart is mine," Kakuzu said and sent his tendril digging into his chest. Silver cried in agony as the tip pierced his flesh and crawled inside. Blood welled from the hole as the black thing snaked through his insides and slid around his heart.

"Now I have it," Kakuzu said softly. "I can feel it already. I am looking forward to discovering how these strange psychic powers of yours combine with my five elements, Silver the Hedgehog."

"Silver…" Blaze mumbled, shock nearly chocking her voice. Seeing that thing penetrating Silver's body watching as the hedgehog's own blood poured over his bright silvery fur, set something off in her. Her hands glowed with an intense burning flare until her entire body was ringed in fire, her flesh glowing red hot.

Kakuzu only laughed when he saw the white ray of fire that she shot out of her hands.

"You will not interfere," he said. "**Katon: Zokuku!" (Fire Release: Cranium Carver)**

The beast with the red mask opened its mouth wide and fired a wave of flames. The two fire blasts met each other head on.

"Stop trying to burn down my ship!" Marine shouted and tossed her sword aside to form her own hand seals.

**"Suiton: Mizu no Tatsumaki!" (Water Release: Tornado of Water)**

Marine shot out a roiling vortex of water from her open hands that spun towards Kakuzu's fire blast, pushing it back together with Blaze's fire bolt.

"So, you truly have learned incorporate ninjutsu into that childish head of yours. It won't save you."

**"Fuuton: Atsugai!" (Wind Release: Pressure Damage)**

The monster with the blue mask opened its mouth. Fierce gusts of wind gathered around its mouth, causing the flames in the room to dance wildly, growing bigger and brighter. Rearing it's head back, the beast unleashed a blast of wind. Together, they unleashed a combination of fierce winds that sliced through the chamber like a storm of invisible swords, and with the wind as fuel, the fire blast expanded into an unstoppable explosion.

Blaze and Marine desperately fired back at the raging firestorm with their Jutsus. Blaze's fire was like a tiny candle compared to Kakuzu's destructive onslaught of wind and flame. Sweat poured down Marine's face. Her column of water was boiling. Hot steam filled the chamber. Behind that curtain of steam and the wall of roaring flames, Marine saw the gold melting. If this kept up, they'd all be swimming in a pool of molten gold.

"Your Suiton Jutsus are not strong enough to overcome my powers combined. The wind adds to my fire, increasing its power tenfold."

"Strewth! He really likes to talk and explain things, doesn't he?"

"Concentrate, Marine. We have to push back or we're all dead."

Kakuzu was getting frustrated. The cat and that insufferable raccoon did everything they could to hold off his attacks, but he saw them struggling, getting weaker. He heard the rapid beating of their hearts, the waning chakra. They would fall soon. He could see them both reaching their breaking point. Then, he could give his full attention to plucking out the hedgehog's heart. Perhaps three hearts would be collected this night.

Silver was very close now to having his heart ripped out of his chest. While Kakuzu concentrated on attacking Blaze and Marine, that one tentacle wormed around his heart and tugged away at it. Silver didn't dare try to teleport away. Kakuzu's own chakra was so tightly wound around his heart, that he risked teleporting away without his heart. Silver poured in as much psychokinetic force through his own body to push it back, to keep it from tearing out his heart. Blood dripped from his nose and put of the corner of his mouth as he strained with every last bit of strength to fight it. His whole body was awash in green light.

Kakuzu had his back to him. He couldn't see the hedgehog, now hanging on between life and death on a thread, ever so slightly lifting his finger.

A golden flash of light sailed through the air and pierced the blue mask. The monster let out a screech just before the mask broke apart and the monster melted into a pile of disgusting black sludge.

"What?" Kakuzu spun around and saw the silver hedgehog emanating psychic energy. He was lifting bits of molten gold with his mind and fashioning them into hardened spears of gold.

Another spear went flying. It stabbed the fire breathing monster and the flames died away instantly as the red mask shattered and the once hulking creature melted before their eyes.

"You dare?!" Kakuzu screamed at Silver. "I have your heart practically in my hands and you dare to strike me?"

"You're not getting my heart!" Silver declared as he pulled the wretched tentacle out of his chest, now soaked in his own blood. "But if it's treasure you want so badly…"

Silver raised his arms. His eyes glowed green with power, a distorted hum filled the air. All the melted gold lifted off the floor. Silver concentrated and molded it all into one giant golden orb.

"…Here, take it**. Meteor Smash!"** Silver thrust the orb at Kakuzu. The great golden meteor sped towards Kakuzu with a comet's tail of green flame trailing behind. It smashed into him, and sent him crashing the walls and out into the open air where it exploded in a shower of golden and green sparks.

Silver couldn't detect Kakuzu's body anywhere out in that storm, but he didn't care. Now that the fight was over, he slumped to the floor, holding his arm over the wound in his heart.

"Silver! Your chest!" Blaze ran to over him. She tore off her royal purple coat and wrapped it around the hedgehog's chest

"I'll be fine," he said. "It's not a big deal."

"That thing was crawling inside you. It is a big deal."

"More importantly, we must get off this ship. I can still teleport us out of here."

The three of them teleported about of there before the roof of the treasure came crashing down.

* * *

**Deidara**

"Looks like that walking hentai flick is down. So is Kisame-dono. At least he got his sword back, un. Well, they won't get me so easily."

Deidara sat back in the captain's chair, rubbing his chin in thought as he looked over the command console that controlled the airship's weapons systems. He was enjoying this immensely. So many buttons to press. Each one capable of unleashing a devastating blast of destruction that could level the city.

"Itachi probably doesn't need my help to destroy the city, but still, some extra explosions never hurt anyone. Station Square deserves to see some fine art in its final moments, before everything is reduced to rubble, un."

Deidara sent a barrage of ballistic missiles that scattered all across the city. The rooftops of Station Square's skyscrapers exploded, sending flaming rubble and debris down into the streets. With another push of a button, Deidara released a mine that landed into the streets that exploded and released a wave of lava that flooded through the streets. With Deidara bombarding the city from above and the Kyuubi saturating the place with youkai, the city became a disaster zone of fiery destruction.

He would have to thank Tails later.

Tails. He almost felt a little guilty allowing Itachi to mentally torture the poor kit and then send his soul to its final resting place inside the eyes of that statue. The world was going to lose a very special genius mind. Tails was right about what he said. They should've worked together. He should've been invited to join as an Akatsuki member. Too bad those days would never come. He brushed his sympathies away. Great art was ever meant to last forever. And great geniuses tended to die young, anyway.

Deidara was knocked out of his artistic musings by the sound of the alarm blaring.

"Warning: Enemy aircraft approaching your position." A red blip on the radar screen showed that there was something coming right for him. The data informed him that this something was much smaller than his war ship, but very well armed.

"Now who would be stupid enough to fly in after me?"

He switched the interface from radar to view screen and saw a very advanced, very tough looking fighter jet flying beside him, firing bullets. Mecha Kyuubi. It was one of Tails'. A quick look with his scope revealed the attacker inside. There was one of the Konoha shinobi piloting this mecha aircraft, her pearly white eyes stared right through the storm, and her sights were set hard on Deidara.

It was Hyuuga Hinata, piloting Tails' Mecha Kyuubi Tornado X.

"Another of Tails' creations un," Deidara exclaimed. "Piloted by one of his friends. With that Byakagun of hers, she's probably a better pilot than me."

Deidara carefully scanned over the attack options. "We must have something in the way of air-to-air missiles here. Ah yes. The Python-5, un. Perfect."

Deidara flicked up a panel of red switches and soon, the warship opened fire with hundreds of missile launchers firing an almost endless stream of AAMs that blanketed the sky.

Within seconds, hundreds of missiles exploded around Hinata from every single direction. She focused deep with her Byakagun, forcing the veins around her eyes to tighten. She saw the missiles flying without having to turn around. Hinata swerved away as the missiles locked onto her Kyuubi Tornado with their infra red sensors, but no matter how expertly she maneuvered the plane, no matter how she rolled her jet, the missiles followed her every move, coming in right and left, from above and below, matching her speed.

Desperate and anxious, Hinata forced all the plane's power out if its thrusters. Mecha Kyuubi's rockets exploded with demon fire pouring out, sending Hinata streaking through the darkened skies like a blazing comet. Higher and higher into the sky she flew through the storm clouds, but the missiles closed in, impossible to outmaneuver. They were too smart and Hinata felt she was still too dumb to pilot a mecha air craft like this. Tails-kun explained everything to her, but she still felt dizzy just looking at the dashboard in front of her. Tails-kun designed those missiles. He thought of everything. Wouldn't the aircraft have anti-air to air missiles?

**"Hinata, you may speak to me if you want to,"** Mecha Kyuubi said.

"Sorry, Mecha Kyuubi-san. I forgot," Hinata said. "What do we do about these missiles chasing us?"

**"I'll handle them."**

Giant blades sprang out of Mecha Kyuubi's arms. Hinata swerved sharply, executing a perfect Immelman Turn and looped past the attacking missiles. She directed the blades through the controls, slicing missiles in half before they could reach her. The Mecha Kyuubi became a whirlwind of blades that shredded apart every missile in Deidara's arsenal.

"Damn!" Deidara pounded his fists on the controls when he saw Hinata overcome the deadly barrage. "Time to add my own artistic spin..." he said as he flicked another switch.

Only one more missile left. With a confident smile, her last strike cut the missile in half, but the missile didn't explode. It opened up and a huge white blob of clay fell out that smothered the plane.

Deidara's voice came on line. "Ha! You weren't prepared to face my exploding clay so soon, were you? That stuff's going to stick to you like glue. No more fancy aerobatics, un."

**"Hinata, I'm going to explode. You'd better press the ejection button now."**

"Will you be all right, Mecha Kyuubi-san?"

**"Ha. I can't be killed. Tails has a million Tornadoes I can use for vessels. Now go!"**

"Than you, Mecha Kyuubi-san."

Just as Deidara uttered the dreaded, "Katsu," Hinata pushed the ejection seat button and was sent flying out of the exploding X Tornado and into the storm tossed winds.

From the cockpit, Deidara watched with amusement at the view screen where the burning remains of the X Tornado fell." If the explosion didn't kill her, the fall would've done it. Good riddance to that gloomy looking girl, un. No art in her soul," Deidara shook his head. "None at all."

As she was mercilessly pummeled by the hurricane winds, Hinata pulled out a grappling gun and fired. Its hooks latched onto the side of the warship and pulled Hinata along. A few thousand feet below her, the city was filled with fire and smoke. Thunder crashed in her ears. A lightning bolt flashed right by her, singing her hair. The rope whipped about and twisted in the wind, sending Hinata on the ride of her life through the black clouds. Her hands were bone white as she tightened her grip and held on. But through it all, she kept her eyes locked on the ship in front of her and she pulled her way closer. Tears leaked from her eyes as she held onto the rope as hard as she could to avoid being blown away in the hurricane.

"I'm not dead yet, Deidara. I'll stop you." Hinata promised as she inched forward.

She reached the ship and dug into the metal with a kunai in each hand and crawled forward. One exploding tag blew open an entrance for her. Hinata tumbled inside, ready to collapse, practically crying from exhaustion. Ignoring her limits, she loaded her pistol and ran down the metal corridor towards the cockpit to finish off Deidara.

Hinata could hear Deidara laughing from the other side of the ship. Good. He'll be easy to surprise. He must believe that he killed her.

Deidara left the cockpit unguarded. Hinata had her back to the corner of the doorway. Slowly, she edged out of the corner and aimed for Deidara's head, gun cocked, finger on the trigger.

She waited.

She held her hand on the trigger for what seemed like hours, preparing herself for what was about to happen. With one pull, that gun would fire a bullet straight through the blonde man's skull and blood and brains would splatter all over the clean metal floors.

Deidara swiveled around in his chair and flicked a small bead of clay from his fingertips. It lodged itself into the barrel of her gun, clogging it up. Hinata threw the gun aside before it blew up in her face.

"I wasn't expecting you to be alive," he said. "You might have gotten the drop on me, but you hesitated in pulling that trigger. True art exists in the moment, un. Too bad. You could've created such beautiful artwork with those eyes that see everything. I guess we'll never know, eh? Now there's no more pesky guns to get in my way."

"Don't move, Deidara!" Cream the Rabbit barged in, aiming a gun at his head. "I still got a gun."

Deidara took one look at the little rabbit in the orange dress pointing this weird looking gun with a comically oversized nozzle at him. It looked more like one of the girl's toys than anything lethal. Deidara couldn't help but roll his head back and laugh.

"Put that silly thing away. At least challenge me with a real gun."

Cream didn't back down. "This isn't an ordinary gun. This is my Chao Cannon!"

"Your what now? Listen, I'm trying to make serious art here. Why don't you take that to gun and-"

Cream pulled the trigger.

POOM!

A blue blur shot out. It was Cheese the Chao, launched out the cannon, and sent rocketing towards Deidara.

"Chaoooo!" Cheese screamed just before it plowed into Deidara's stomach. The Chao crashed into him like a tidal wave. Deidara went careening into the air, slamming into the ceiling, and fell back down, grasping his stomach in pin, blood dripping down his mouth.

"This is my Chao Cannon," Cream said. "Tails made it for me. It uses a minor form of Chaos Control to teleport my chao in and turns them into deadly projectiles."

Deidara coughed up spit and blood. "I forgot…what formidable foes the chao can be."

Cream closed her eyes and blew the remnants of chao smoke from her gun and twirled it around her fingers, like a grizzled old gunslinger. She cocked her gun again.

Deidara's eyes widened in horror.

"Shit! Another one?"

Cream fired again. This time, a Naruto Chao shot out of the cannon at him with a fully formed mini-Rasengan in hand. Deidara kicked off the floor and slid out of its path and the Naruto chao went screaming passed him and plowed through the wall. A gigantic hole ruptured. The demonic storm winds came screaming in, threatening to pull them all out.

Before Cream could ready another shot from that horrid weapon, Deidara grabbed for the gun. "Give me that gun, you little brat. This crazy rampage of yours is over, un."

"NO! Give that back!" Cream shouted at the top her lungs.

"Please do not scream at me in that shrill, glass shattering voice again!"

"I can scream as loud as I want!" Cream screamed into his ears. She kicked him in the face hard with both feet, throwing Deidara off. The Chao Cannon flung from her hands and slid across the floor.

"Thank you, Cream. I'll finish him now," Hinata said. Despite the storm winds shaking the ship around, Hinata moved fluidly into her perfect Jyuuken form. She closed her eyes and for a moment, there was no storm. No demonic chakra. No noisy explosions. Just the empty world of Taijitu and the triagrams. The stinging chakra in her hands was finely honed to a laser point. While Deidara was still bent over and coughing up blood, Hinata's hand struck his chest and went straight through the big mouth in Deidara's hidden within.

"GAH!" Deidara reared back, convulsing in pain. His eyes rolled back into his head and he went berserk, spitting and yowling like a rabid animal. Blood, saliva, and bits of clay frothed at the mouth as he screamed.

"You monochrome eyed bitch! You don't know what you've done!" He tore off his cloak revealing the monstrous mouth hidden there. Hinata shrunk back at the terrifying transformation. She could clearly all the veins in his body, now blackened while as explosive chakra rushed through the meridians of his heart.

"It's over, Deidara. Please give up."

"Over? It's just gotten started," Deidara snarled. I didn't intend to do this, but your damn Jyuuken triggered it."

"Triggered what?"

"The mightiest of my explosive clay techniques. **"Kyukyoku Geijutsu! (Ultimate Art)** I was saving this clay for later, but your damn Hyuuga chakra had to disrupt the flow of chakra in my veins. You hit my heart and jammed my arteries with my own explosive clay. It's rushing through my blood, turning my body into the ultimate bomb. Now there's nothing I can do to stop the chakra from building up and releasing my greatest explosion. The one that will kill you and me and everyone in a ten kilometer radius."

"Hinata..." Cream tugged on her shirt. "I'm scared."

"Gentle Fist, may ass!" Deidara growled as his skin turned translucent. "You're going to be responsible for blowing up a huge chunk of this city."

"We...we have to get out of here, Cream. Fast!"

"But I don't know how we can do that. The Mecha Kyuubi's gone and I can't fly fast enough."

Cream frantically looked around the room and spotted a computer monitor in the corner. The screen was on and displayed an image of Sonic's red sneakers.

Cream's face lit up like a beacon.

"Look! It's one of those special boxes. Whenever Mr. Sonic or Tails breaks one of these open, they can move so fast, they can cover whole zones in less than a minute. We're so lucky! These things show up in the most random places."

"Can you use it, Cream?"

Cream nodded. "What about Deidara?"

Hinata glanced back at Deidara, still writhing in pain under all those explosives coursing through his body. He looked like he was losing his mind

"There's nothing we can do to help him."

Deidara screamed as beams of energy emanated from his pores. The overwhelming forces tore his body in half. Cream screeched and buried her eyes in Hinata's shirt to avoid the gruesome death scene.

But Deidara did not die. He only split into two Deidaras. The first Deidara was still overflowing with exploding chakra. The second Deidara got up, perfectly normal. After one moment of confusion, Deidara looked at his soon to go super nova double. Then he looked at his own hands in disbelief.

"It worked! Yes! The fission jutsu was a complete success! Now I can personally see greatest art with my own eyes."

"A fission Jutsu?" Hinata asked.

"Yes! I used the awesome energy in my ultimate technique to split every single atom in my body. Kakubunretsu no Jutsu!" (Nuclear Fission Technique) I gave myself new life. Now I can live to watch myself die and see my own greatest art."

Deidara's original body was glowing, reaching critical mass. All that chakra centered around his heart, condensing into a tiny black sphere.

"Cream! We must leave now!"

Cream smashed open the red sneaker monitor. A rush of speed consumed her body. It was like everything in life was slowed down in bullet time.

Cream lifted Hinata by the shoulders and flew out for there fast as hell, ears flapping harder than they've ever flapped before. Deidara's insane death cries behind them. Then, the airship was engulfed in an explosive tower of light. Cream could feel the heat of the blast, the blinding light that flooded the sky. The Ocean Tornado was gone, vaporized in the light.

"Let's get back to the arena," Hinata said. "There's just one more enemy to face."

* * *

**Itachi**

This was not good.

Had Itachi's Sharingan not transfixed everyone into their seats, every single human and Mobian would've bolted out the doors in a panicked frenzy after seeing the monster that came alive before them. A fox's skeleton formed around the kit's body. The skull of a fox demon rested on Tails' head. Tails wore the skull and bones like helmet and armor. The fur beneath it was deeper and darker shade of red than ever before, almost black, but his eyes burned bright, like molten orbs, glowing with the fires of Hell.

"Wow! He's really transforming into something crazy. Do you think he'll go full Nine Tails, Itachi?" Tobi asked.

Itachi didn't answer, too busy strumming his guitar, so Tobi decided, with no fear whatsoever, to walk right up to the kitsune, passed the waves of killing chakra, for a closer look.

Tails snarled and swung away with a single tail, smashing Tobi in the face. Tobi's mask shattered and the impact shot him into the sky. The remnants of the orange mask crunched under Tails' feet as he stepped over the pieces and approached Itachi. He grinned, baring his full set of razor sharp, cruel fangs, pleased that he so easily killed that pesky ninja in the mask.

Tails lifted his head to the heavens and let out a mighty roar that sent his chakra spreading like wildfire. The glowing lightning aura around him darkened to black bolts of destruction. He opened his mouth wide, revealing a maw that was a bottomless wellspring of youki. The dark energies swirled together, preparing the all powerful Bijuu Dama.

Itachi didn't move when Tails fired the Tailed Beast Bomb straight at him. It shattered Silver's psionic barrier, sending millions of green shards scattering as it passed by. A shield of chakra sprang into existence before Itachi. A gleaming magic mirror, as if forged from the sun itself took the force of the blast. The Uchiha nin did not move. He did not blink. The black sphere of utter darkness exploded inches before his face. When the smoke cleared, Itachi was in the same spot, calm and stoic as ever, protected by a barrier of shimmering energy.

"Why…?" The demon fox growled. "Why are you still alive?"

"The Yata Mirror," Itachi said." The only shield that could withstand such a dense blast of chakra. Even if you were to summon forth evil chakra from the bottommost pits of Hell, this shield can reflect it and nullify it. It would be foolish of me not to have prepared some from of defense against you, Tails-kun."

It was then that Tails took a step back and noticed that Itachi had his own skeleton armor covering him. He stood calmly inside a ghostly ribcage made of blazing yellow chakra.

But that was only the beginning of the jutsu. An enormous skeletal death knight whose skull reached up to the roof of the arena now loomed above him. The giant warrior was shaped from pure chakra, as big and as intense as Tails' own chakra shroud, but where Tails was covered in the darkest chakra in existence, the knight's chakra was a brilliant yellow. Like Amaterasu, it was another of Itachi's jutsus that harnessed the awesome might of the sun.

"This is the third secret technique of the Mangekyou Sharingan, Susanoo," Itachi said. "It is perhaps my only jutsu that could shield me from your demonic power."

Tails would've normally been scared, but that part of his mind that registered feared was no longer working. Only rage.

Itachi's Susannoo grew bigger. Flesh and armor formed around the death knight's bones and sinews, created by Itachi's own chakra. A magic sake jar appeared by the knight's side. With its bony hand, Susanno uncorked the jar and spilled out the mystical, otherworldly sake that radiated with intense light.

That must be some damn good sake...Tails thought as watched the knight shape the sake into a giant fluid sword.

"Stand down, Tails-kun," Itachi commanded. "Trust me. You do not wish to be struck by the **Sword of Totsuka.**"

"You're not going to kill me with that," Tails dared and leapt above the sword's swipe and landed onto top of the mystical blade. Crouching on all fours now, he ran atop the giant sword and lashed out, with claws outstretched and fangs bared, he sliced Susannoo's hand off. The Sword of Totsuka flung from Itachi's grasp and disappeared into the ether. Tails landed back on stage, and crunched on the bones from Susanoo's hand. He chewed up the eldritch chakra and slurped it down with a satisfied smile on his face, making him look all the more terrifying.

**"Hey, Itachi. Your Susanoo tastes good. Kinda like chili dogs."**

Itachi didn't look at all perturbed by Tails disarming him. The arm and the sword could be regenerated in only minutes.

Tails sniffed the air, then unrolled his tongue and smacked his lips. "I smell your blood. Boiling under your skin. Bleeding out your eyes. How long can you hold onto that jutsu? All that chakra to control. Must be very painful. Agonizing."

Itachi passed a finger under his eye. It ran red with his blood.

"It seems we will have to finish this quickly," Tails-kun," Itachi said. "I will have to use the one jutsu that will-"

"Itachi, release that jutsu before you kill yourself," Kakashi swung in on a rope and landed in between the two dueling ninjas, looking all the more dramatic with his tuxedo still on. As cool as Kakashi tried to make himself appear, he felt as if his entire body would be torn apart. Standing in between the clashing chakras of the Kyuubi and Susannoo was an overwhelming experience. This was the absolute pinnacle of godlike chakra use. Standing in between the Demon Lord Kyuubi's chakra and the divine fire of Susannoo, the Tempestuous God of Valour, it was like being flung back and forth between Heaven and Hell. Kakashi feared that this would happen to the entire city if he didn't end this battle soon.

"What are you doing here, Kakashi?" Itachi asked.

"Have you forgotten about me, Itachi? You'd think I'd let Tails mess with you alone, did you?"

"Hardly. You never registered to us a threat. All those months training Tails have amounted to nothing. You are a foolish and worthless sensei."

"Ka-kashi…sensei…" Tails started to calm down when he saw his sensei standing over him. His red shroud of chakra grew fainter. The fox bones he wore as armor started to fall apart and disappear.

"All these months of you guys failing to capture Tails says differently." Kakashi said. "I did train under the greatest sensei in the world and he taught me one thing. There's more to being a sensei than just teaching jutsu, Itachi. Anyone can teach technique, but a good sensei will always be there to protect his apprentice when he needs me."

"You can't undo what has already started," said Itachi. "Tails is mine."

"I wasn't finished. A great sensei also learns from his students. I learned a lot from these past few months training with Tails. It's true, Tails," Kakashi looked at him and gave a wink. "I think you're my most favorite student ever."

Tails smiled when he heard that. His hideous toothy maw receded to reveal Tails' real face and his true smile. His eyes switched from blood red back to deep blue.

"Take a close look, Itachi," Kakashi went on, relieved that Tails was returning. "Since our last encounter, I've been trying to figure out how to improve my Sharingan. With Tails' help, I did."

Kakashi lifted up his hitai-ite and revealed his Sharingan. A new one. He had the spinning black pinwheel, but deep inside the center of that spinning pinwheel, Itachi saw the slitted pupil of a fox's eye. His entire eye was wreathed in red flames.

It was the eye of the Kyuubi. Kakashi's Mangekyou Sharingan was using Kyuubi chakra.

"How..?"

For the first time ever, Kakashi saw Itachi taken by surprise. He gently placed his fingers onto his eye and pulled down his eyelid, revealing that embedded in his eyeball was a tiny microchip.

"You know about Tails' special ability that even Naruto doesn't have? How he can infuse his Kyuubi chakra into any machine he wants? I had this tiny microchip surgically implanted into my eye. It's alive with his Kyuubi chakra. The enhancements to the Sharingan are incredible. Itachi, my Mangekyou Sharingan is stronger than yours now."

"Itachi, I knew all along that your awesome, yet evil concert was a mind control trap. We would never have come if we didn't have a way to dispel your Sharingan."

"You really think you mastered the secrets of the Sharingan, don't you, Kakashi?"

"Yeah. More than ever, actually. Face it, Itachi. You're no longer the undisputed master of the Sharingan."

"Your enhanced eye is nothing but a cheap gimmick, Kakashi."

"It's not a gimmick," Kakashi said. "Tails and I are taking the Sharingan back. This kind of power was never meant to fall into human hands. The blood soaked history of your clan is proof of that."

Susanno too was now fading away. "I am surprised you are so willingly allying yourself with the Kyuubi. Do you realize that you've now actually turned yourself into a half demon? There can be no going back from this."

"Itachi, I think you're getting angry because you wish you did this first."

"..." Itachi stayed silent.

"I admit. It wasn't easy, but this is seriously the only way we can stop you. Tails has proven to me that he can safely contain the Kyuubi. I believe in him. That, Itachi, is what makes a truly great sensei."

"I see..." Itachi said simply. "Well played, Kakashi. Tails is free from my grasp. Well played indeed."

The last of Tails' chakra shroud faded away and Tails' fur was back to its original bright. The six tails vanished, leaving him with two. When it was all over, Tails collapsed to the ground.

Kakashi rushed to grab his head before he smacked it on the floor again. "Easy, Tails. You don't want to hit your head again."

Tails opened his eyes half way. "Ungh...Kakashi-sensei…what happened?"

"We beat him, Tails. That's what happened. It's over. We won."

"Really?" he whispered. A tiny smile curled around the corner of his mouth.

"Not yet," Itachi said. "Tails may be free, but can even your enhanced Sharingan free everyone on Mobius?"

"Maybe not by itself," Kakashi replied. "But if music was what you used to trap them…"

"Then music is what's will set Mobius free!" Sonia piped in, transforming his medallion into an enchanted laser shooting keyboard.

Manic arrived at her side, morphing his medallion into a new drum set. "Our instruments our fixed, dudes. Now it's time for the Grand Finale!"

"Tails, take up Sonic's guitar," Manic threw Sonic's legendary purple guitar at him.

Tails stared down at the guitar that fell into his hands, looking very confused.

"But I don't know how to play."

"Don't worry about that," Manic said, twirling his drumsticks. "That's Sonic's guitar. Big bro's spirit will guide you."

"Hmmm...Perhaps the right genjutsu will give Tails the inspiration he needs to play," Kakashi considered as he gazed at Tails with his Sharingan. The flames in his eyes started to spin.

Tails ears perked up as he heard someone melodically plucking guitar strings right behind him. He spun around and there he was. Sonic the Hedgehog standing right there with him.

Tails rubbed his eyes. "Sonic? Is that really you?"

_"Yeah, little bro. It's me in genjutsu form, anyway. That Tsukuyomi trick's got some good uses other than turning your brain to mush. This time, it's gonna pump you up with all the positive vibes you need to ascend to the next stage of hardcore!"_

"Hardcore?"

_"That's right, Tails. We're goin' hardcore!" Sonic jumped into a spindash and bounced around the stage while jamming on the guitar. "Ya ready to rock Itachi's brains out? Let's go for a way past cool entrance, you know, go flyin' in, hit the ol' Axel Rose coze, right on the down beat!"_

"I have no ideas what that means…"

_"Geez...just follow along with me, Tails."_

Tails watched Sonic bust out an epic riff. Tails followed along slowly, just nodding his head and tapping his feet a little, but soon, his tails picked up and grooved to the beat, his fingers glided along the strings and soon, he started jamming and bouncing around the stage side by side with Sonic, rocking along with Sonic Underground at super sonic speed.

_"Now you're gettin' the hang of it, Tails,"_ Sonic cheered him on. _"All of humanity has led up to this one moment! That guitar will decide the destiny of everyone on Mobius. You know what you must do now."_

"What, Sonic? What must I do?"

It was the Kyuubi's voice that rose up to give the answer.

**"Tails, you must rock the fuck out!"**

Tails did so.

Tails rocked the fuck out. And Sonic Underground rocked the fuck out with him.

Once again, Tails underwent a transformation. The fur on his head grew long and wild. He was decked out in a studded leather jacket with spikes on his shoulders that were on fire and leather pants. His shoulders were draped in chains crackling with electricity, and his face was covered in black face paint. Fire and lightning spewed out of his guitar. Tails slid to the edge of the stage for his solo and stuck his tongue way out. That's where everyone learned that Tails possessed a ridiculously long tongue that could not possibly belong to any mortal being. Way longer than Gene Simmons'.

Tails channeled all his demonic rage into Sonic's guitar. Now no longer just a weird looking purple guitar that shot lasers, it transformed into an instrument of pure soul shattering cosmic chaos that shot infernal Hell Lasers out of a portal from a forbidden dimension in the Abyss. An army of flying Demon Chao came out, flying around with their bat like wings and their satanic horns with little pitchforks and flaming spears, all summoned to the music of the Kitsune Demon Lord. They giggled and laughed wickedly as the demon lights, hidden in the dark for millennia now spilled forth out of the swirling vortex into the mortal world. Those who saw the opening of the Hell Gate would have lost their minds and gone mad from the revelation, but the music was too awesome.

It was then in the midst of all that rocking insanity that the curse was lifted and the genjutsu broken. The Sharingan disappeared from the eyes of the people. The music picked up and everybody got up and left their seats. They starting dancing, going wild and crazy. A huge mosh pit of crazed fans formed in front of the sound stage. They shouted louder so Tails, Sonia and Manic had to play louder and crazier.

Now they knew it was over, but the band didn't stop. Tails couldn't stop. Tails grabbed his guitar and whipping himself into a crazed demonic frenzy, he swung it around like an axe, smashing apart everything on stage while explosions and bursts of fire and lasers erupted around him. The crowd roared with applause. Tails finished off by holding up Sonic's guitar one handed triumphantly. A blast of dazzling white lightning descended from the Heavens and a billion volts gushed through the guitar into Tails, lighting him up with lightning until he burned as bright as the heart of a star. No eyes could look upon him without going blind. Tails stood in place, letting the electricity surge through his body, like a Demon God of Lightning.

"YEAH! ROCK AND ROLL, MOBIUS! FREEDOM IS BACK!"

A cacophony of cheers erupted. People threw roses onto the stage. Somebody's bra was flung right into Tails' face.

Sonic stood by leaning on his guitar with a big grin on his face.

**"Didn't know you had it in you, did you, big guy. Guess my work here is now done. I'll be seein' you real soon. Stay cool, bro and rock on!"**

"Sonic. Wait!" Tails called back to him. The concert was ending. Tails' clothes and affects vanished. Sonic looked like he was ready to vanish, too.

_"What's up, Tails?_

"Are you really leaving?"

_"Yeah, buddy. We rocked out there and saved the world. My work here is done."_

"I just wish you didn't have to go away. I almost forgot how much fun it was when we would fight together. It's been real hard protecting Mobius without you."

Sonic reached out and ruffled the fur on Tails' head.

_"Aw, Tails. I'm not goin' anywhere. I never left. I was always right beside you every step of the way. We're the unbreakable bond, remember? That means no genjutsu, no fancy ninja tricks can break us. No universe can separate us. Not even death. I'll be with you all the way to the end for the Grand Finale!"_

"Bye, Sonic..." Tails waved and a tear rolled down his eye as he watched Sonic fade away into nothingness. He looked down at the guitar in his hands and around the utterly demolished stage, hard to believe what just happened.

"Wow. That was pretty intense..." Tails said as he flicked the bra off his ear.

"All right! Miles Prower! Super Demon Kitsune Rock Star!" Manic jumped into the air and shouted. "Nicely done, bro. That was the best Underground concert we ever put on!"

Tails blushed. "Yeah? Was I really that good?"

"Dude! If you rocked any harder, all of Mobius would explode from the sheer awesomeness!" Manic turned to scowl at Sonia. "Hmph. And you didn't want to come."

Sonia shrugged. "Well, we almost got killed doing it, but yeah. This was our best performance to date. And we saved the city at that. The three of us did it."

Tails shook his head. "No. The four of us did it."

"Huh?"

"Sonic. He was here. He was jamming with us. You were right, guys. Sonic was here to guide me. I know now that he'll always be there to guide me through everything."

Manic gave him a serious look. "Tails, you're going off to ninja land to find Sonic, right?"

"Yeah."

"Hold on to that guitar. Go find him and give it back to him. Tell him everything that happened here."

Tails nodded firmly. "I will. I promise."

"So, Kakashi," Itachi said. "Your use of the Sharingan was impressive, but it won't help you in the end. I can still reactivate my genjutsu anytime-"

Itachi felt something _SPLAT_ right into the his face.

A tomato. A very big, red, ripe tomato, just exploded its fruity guts into him and slid the side of Itachi's face.

Itachi wiped the tomato chunks out of his face and glared at the audience.

"Who threw that?"

Another tomato. Then another. Soon, the stage was raining with tomatoes, all aimed for Itachi.

"BOOOOOOOOOO!"

"You suck, Itachi!"

"Yeah, man! Tails rules!"

"Demon Rocker Tails is fuckin' awesome!"

"Get off the stage, ya jackass!"

"I can't believe I lost my virginity to you!"

They weren't a big deal for him to dodge, nor were the insults meaningful to him, but he never expected the concert to finish with such a big turnabout. When the hail of tomatoes ended, Itachi wiped the juice out of his face and turned to Tails and Kakashi.

"It appears that my genjutsu has been completely broken. Your band and that Sharingan have won this round, Tails-kun, Kakashi."

"Are you ready to acknowledge Sonic Underground as the best rock stars on Mobius now?" Manic asked.

"My career as a musician is over," Itachi said. "My role here is finished. Perhaps it is then time."

"Time for what?" Tails asked.

"Time to face the Leader of the Akatsuki."

"I think I spoke too soon about this being the Grand Finale and all," Manic whispered into Sonia's ear. "Now we gotta take on the main man."

* * *

**Pein**

Dead silence descended over the sound stage.

Except for Tails, who was on the verge of freaking out.

"The Leader of Akatsuki? He's here?"

"Stay calm, Tails," Kakashi said. "Getting anxious again is exactly what he wants from you."

Tails scanned around the stage frantically. "Where is he? If I could just see him, I'd feel a lot-AH!" Tails cried out in pain.

Something sharp grazed across his cheek as it flew by, leaving a tiny bleeding scratch mark. Tails glanced to see embedded in the floor a paper flower, stained with a drop of his own blood. Then, more flowers began to rain down on the stage. He looked up to see a beautiful blue haired woman and a white flower in her hair descended, carried by angel wings made of paper.

"Hello, Tails-kun," she said as she rubbed his cheek with a playful smile. "Try to be careful when our Leader comes. I know you think you're such a little tough guy, but remember, Pein never lost a battle before."

Tails started to blush. "Another sexy Akatsuki member?"

"Another?" Konan asked, a bit bemused. "Itachi, you didn't actually use that awful sexy Jutsu to traumatize the poor boy, did you?"

"It was called for in the script. Of course, I did."

"He's just one of those naughty closet perverts," she said. "I'm sorry he's been bothering you so much, Tails, but all that's going to be over very soon. Pein is coming. Try to be careful. If your guard was down enough to get this simple little scratch, you won't stand much of a chance against him."

Konan pulled away from Tails just as one more ninja wearing the Akatsuki cloak entered on stage.

He walked in surrounded as red paper flowers rained around him. His hair was as orange as Tails' fur and something about his style reminded him of Naruto. Tails flinched though at the sight of all those piercings along his nose, his ears, and chin.

The guy must really be into pain to give himself that many piercings, Tails thought. Stranger though, and far more ominous were his eyes. There was nothing like it. Pein sent waves of klling intent and icy hatred from his eyes. Tails knew there was an unspeakable power luring behind those rippling eyes, world upon world hidden beneath each layer of the circles.

"Another eye jutsu? How many of these bloodlines are there?"

"This bloodline is the rarest of them all," Kakashi said. "It shouldn't even exist. Jiraiya mentioned that he had seen it, but that person should be dead. I wonder…"

"You're Pein?" Tails asked.

Pein spoke, his voice calm as gentle rainfall. "You fought well, young kitsune, but this show has ended. Now surrender and come quietly."

"I'm so tired of hearing this."

Tails gritted his teeth as he wiped the blood from his face. He twisted his tails and hovered in the air to Pein's full height.

"No."

Tails attacked.

**The Destined Battle Continues...**

Next Chapter: Tails vs. Pein. To the Death! The next chapter is partially complete as it was meant to be part of this one, but was cut for belong too long. It needs its own chapter to do it justice. Maybe two chapters. It will be a big, big fight. Because Tails won't be fighting all Six Paths of Pein alone. That's all I can really say about it.

There is a direct quote from the Sonic SatAM series here. Can you find it? Name the episode?

A few other question that need answers: Where the hell is the romance? Not too far away, actually. Hang in there. Are other characters coming in? Yeah. Loads. That's the hardest part, deciding who can appear in a chapter. (This one had about twenty) But more are on the way. Anyone from anywhere in Sonic and Naruto are fair game. Even Amy's cousin Rob. He's cool.

I changed Konan's personality because I couldn't get excited to write about her as she is in the manga. Now she's more fun. Jiraiya influenced her nicely. Oh, and I didn't even know that Konan had some sexy outfit sketched by Kishi. Thank you, Cap'n Chryssallid for revealing this information.

That's all for now. Please review and tell me how this was and I can't wait to see you soon with the next chapter!


	25. God's Judgment

**The Battle Rages On...**

**Chapter XXV: God's Judgment**

Tails flew across the stage, kicking up a gust a wind as he surged towards the Akatsuki Leader, kunai in hand. He aimed for the eyes. Those eyes that stared deep into him, always hidden in the shadows until now, guiding the Akatsuki and being the source of every challenge Tails had faced. Light glinted off the blade as Tails slashed it through the air and dove in for the final battle with the Akatsuki.

A sword of pure black metal flashed out of Pein's sleeve. Blades clashed and Tails' kunai scraped along the length of Pein's sword. Even as Tails pumped his lightning chakra through his weapon, trying to break through, Pein did not budge. Crackling electricity danced along the surface of his sword. His violet eyes gave off a sinister gleam. With a sudden twist of the wrist, Pein knocked Tails' kunai out of his hand. Another blinding flash from Pein's black blade sliced into the fox's face.

With a sharp cry, Tails flew backwards and skidded back to the far end of the stage. A thin cut opened on his cheek with warm blood trickling down his face. Tails held up his hand to see the his white glove running red with blood. Something didn't feel right about that cut. The cut went deep - but something else was wrong. There was a strange tingling in his face that spread through his body, making him feel dizzy. His vision got blurry.

"What the...?" Everything went pitch black as Tails lost his balance and felt himself pulled deep into a black hole. At the center of the endless void was an enormous pair of purple eyes. Pein's eyes. They were staring right into him with a killing intent that hit him like a sledgehammer blow. The inner world where the Kyuubi was kept shuddered. Ripples formed in the shallow pools and the lights flickered sporadically.

**"What is this? I don't like this chakra," **Kyuubi snarled at the pounding of Pein's powers on his prison door. **"I haven't felt such chakra since...No. This guy shouldn't possess such chakra. Snap out of it, Tails. Fight back!"**

"Stop messing around with my brain!" Tails shouted as he released a rage filled burst of chakra. A ring of demonic flames forced Pein to leap back and keep his distance. That did the trick as Tails pulled himself out of the blackness. His vision returned from the void and he felt his feet tapping on solid ground again. Tails wobbled around the stage, his head swimming, finding balance difficult.

"Are you all right, Tails?" Kakashi asked, helping Tails regain balance.

Tails rubbed the side of his face. A dull numbness spread across his cheek where Pein cut him.

"That sword does weird things to a guy's chakra," he said.

"I see," Kakashi observed the blood dripping sword in Pein's hand. "That's a chakra disruption sword. A single cut will scramble your chakra coils, making them go berserk. Keep your distance. Think long range and surprise attacks."

"Kakashi-sensei, you're bleeding," Tails said, noting the numerous thin cuts all over his chest and arms.

"Oh, this? Just paper cuts. Pein's lovely assistant is one feisty little mare," Kakashi said, glancing towards the blue haired woman who surrounded herself with razor sharp paper shuriken fluttering about her. "Still haven't landed a scratch on her, though."

"They're strong opponents, aren't they?"

Kakashi nodded. "We're dealing with the masterminds of this organization. They won't be going easy on us."

Pein flicked away the few droplets of blood from the tip of his sword and slowly advanced towards Tails.

"Don't bother helping him, Hatake Kakashi," Pein warned. "Get in the way of my capture and you will suffer painfully."

"Before you attack, try to figure out what his powers are and look for any weak spots," Kakashi whispered in Tails' ear.

"He likes to talk about pain a lot. I think that's his main power."

"You want to see the powers of the Rinnegan? Very well. But know full well that the kind of pain you are brining upon yourselves and your world." A dense, dark chakra swirled in the palm of Pein's hand.

**"Bansho Tennin!" (Heavenly Attraction of All Creation)**

An unseen force seized hold of Kakashi's body. He fell to his knees and grabbed the side of his face. Kakashi's Sharingan eye bulged, then his eyeball burst out of his socket in a horrific shower of blood. Tails stood frozen in shock and terror as Kakashi's eyeball, its nerves still attached, sailed right past him into Pein's waiting hand. Kakashi collapsed to the floor. Blood flowed out of his empty eye socket and pooled around his body.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Tails screamed out, tears welling in his eyes as he ran over to his fallen sensei. From behind, Tails heard the wet squishing sound of Pein's footsteps across the blood soaked floor. Then, nothing. Pein's shadow was above him now. He could still feel that weird dense chakra roiling in the Leader's hand.

Pein discarded the eyeball and reached a bloodstained hand towards Tails. He paused mid-step. Something was wrong. Kakashi's blood sizzled and bubbled with electrical sparks. Kakashi's corpse emanated rays of bright incandescent blue. Tails had to shield his eyes, but Pein looked straight on and braced himself as Kakashi's body erupted with a crash of lightning and thunder.

"A lightning clone?" Pein swiped his arm and deflected the lightning blasts away until they dissipated into nothingness.

"Tails! Attack him now!" Kakashi shouted. The real one emerged from the shadows.

Wiping the tears from his eyes, Tails glanced to the floor, where he saw lying in the corner, a gun. Probably dropped in the fight. Relieved and renewed with energy knowing that his sensei was alive, Tails dashed across the stage, dodging a slashing arc from Pein's sword, and dove for the gun. He grabbed the pistol in his hands and fired at the Akatsuki Leader.

Pein didn't even try to dodge. He just waved his arm once.

The red hot bullets stopped just millimeter's from Pein's face and reversed directions. They zipped back They struck Kakashi in both arms. Burning pain radiated down his arms and Kakashi slumped down against the wall. Blood came pouring down his arms. Tails tried to fire off another set of rounds, but another slash of Pein's sword knocked the gun out of his hand, shattering it into pieces.

"No lightning clone this time, I see," Pein said as he turned to Kakashi who laid in the corner wall prone, bleeding profusely. "You cannot hide from pain for long."

"So now I know what it's like to get shot," Kakashi said, rather nonchalantly. "It had to happen sooner or later."

"I'll get you help, Kakashi-sensei," Tails said. "I swear I won't let Pein kill anybody because of me."

"Never mind that now, Tails. Watch his movements closely," Kakashi said, in between short breaths, burning pain radiating down his arms and legs. "Focus on his movements. He destroyed that gun quickly. And he didn't use his force pushing ability to do it. Why not?"

"It could mean his telekinesis works on a time interval."

Pein narrowed his eyes as they spoke. Two genius ninjas deducing his powers was a disadvantage.

"Pein, if this keeps up, they'll figure you out quickly," Konan whispered.

Pein nodded to the blue haired woman. A kunai floated from the floor up into Pein's hand, its tip angled at Kakashi's head.

"That's enough out of you, Kakashi," Pein said. "It is time to end your pain and for you to face the cold, empty silence of eternity's embrace."

The kunai flung from Pein's hand and flew towards Kakashi's head.

Tails flew in and caught the tip of the kunai in between his fingers, just an inch before it could bury itself in between Kakashi's eyes.

"If you're going to throw these things, then throw them at me!" Tails shouted, his voice echoed across the vast arena. "It's time we settled this. Just the two of us."

The thinnest ghost of a smile appeared around Pein's mouth. It creeped Tails out.

"When demons rise up from Hell," Pein said, "God in his his righteous judgment will cast them back into the Pit. Wouldn't you agree, Kyuubi?"

Tails shrugged a shoulder. "I don't really know. I'm not sure that you're God, though."

"Then tonight you will learn that I am God through pain. You are young. You have yet to experience true pain. Nor can you comprehend what it means to stand before God. Tonight, you and everyone on Mobius will come to learn both, Kyuubi no Kitsune."

"Don't call me that anymore," Tails said as he tossed the kunai aside. "He told me his true name. It's **Kurama**."

"Who?"

"That's Kyuubi's real name. All the bijuu have names. Didn't you know any of that when you sealed them up? Shukaku, Matatabi, Isobu, Son Goku, Kokuo, Saiken, Chomai? Recognize any of those names? You murdered their hosts and sealed their souls inside a dark prison. They're all screaming inside there, trying to get out."

"Don't mind their pain. Their Jinchuuriki hosts are long dead. What remains are just chakra constructs. That's what you will become. You are an instrument of my plans for peace, a vessel to spread the light of God throughout the universe. Why should I care about your name?"

"Because," Tails clenched one fist, shaking it in rage, "even if you somehow beat me and if you seal my soul away forever, I'm gonna tell you my name. And everyone in the world will hear it. And then, they will all rise up to defy you, no matter what kind of God you think you are. And we'll fight till the very end with everything we've got, so you'll just have to shove this era of peace of yours right up your ass!"

Kurama started to laugh. **"Kit...I'm touched about what you said. You're really fired up about this aren't you?"**

"Sure I am," Tails wore a devilish smile now on his face and a gleam in his eyes. "This is it, isn't it? The Leader finally showed himself. This is the last battle with Akatsuki."

"So. This world would rather follow the bloodthirsty whims of a demon over my godly world of peace," Pein looked down at Tails, never once blinking. "Mobius truly is a corrupt world in need of a savior to show them the way of peace."

"You're not the first power mad tyrants who called himself a god and decided to take over the world. We've heard it all before," Tails said.

"Kyuubi promised to remove all pain from you, didn't he? Becoming the demon vessel has clouded you to the painful realities of the world."

"No it didn't," Tails shot back. "It only made all the more aware how Mobius needs someone to protect them. Kurama didn't promise to remove all the pain. He taught me how to fight it!"

Pein raised an eyebrow. "So you think you know pain? I think not. I suffered far more pain than you could ever imagine when I was your age, and I still learned more about true pain. It is an endless never ending spiral of despair. You will see what I mean when I show this world the true face of pain."

Pein spread his arms wide out. An invisible, but dense chakra gathered in his hands and radiated outward. Tails felt the weight of the power pushing him down, but he forced himself to stand strong.

"I'm going to give you a taste of true pain now. We have always performed this technique in utmost secrecy. Now will be the first time we reveal it to the world."

Pein slammed his hand into the ground. A circular pattern of shimmering mystical runes extended from his fingers across the stage floor.

"And you'll be too busy screaming to even remember your own name," Pein finished as the summoning circle erupted into light.

**"Kuchiyose no Jutsu! Gedo Mazo!" (Summoning: Demonic Statue of the Outer Path)**

Tails heard the Kyuubi's nose flare up in anger, laced with fear. **"Shit! He's actually summoning that thing right here? Right now? Tails, we need to get the Hell out of here now!"**

Tails felt a cold sweat run down his face. His eyeballs were shaking in his head. When Kyuubi got scared, it was time to run, but Tails' legs felt petrified in the face of the dreaded evil that was about to come.

A ring of dark, purple fire set the floor ablaze. The ground cracked open as Pein summoned a new creature from the shadowy flames. Looming over the little fox was an enormous statue of a monstrous humanoid, made of warped and twisted wood, covered in spiky protrusions. Its arms and mouth were bound in shackles. The statue looked old, older than the world itself. Tails worried about the shifting, creaking chains, that if even one chain were to snap, whatever horror was contained inside would break free. He sensed something stirring inside, a demonic presence imprisoned for eons. Something so absolutely evil, even the Kyuubi felt intimidated by the aura of pure malice that radiated through the statue.

"Kurama...what's in that thing?" Tails asked, his lip quivering.

**"A demon. Nothing like me and the other bijuu. You think you get crap from people about destroying the world? That's nothing compared to what's locked away in the bowels of that statue. Don't worry. I don't think Akatsuki plans to actually free that thing. Not yet, at least."**

"And the seven bijuu are locked away in there...with something else? Wow...that's a lot of power. It's so big, so evil..." Tails steadied himself, he stopped shaking as he looked up at the towering statue. "We must destroy it."

**"Careful around that statue, kit. It spells death for all Jinchuuriki." **

"Yeah? Well, we're about to change all that," Tails said, all fear driven out of his mind. "I've been waiting a long time to see what this legendary demon sealing statue looks like. Now's our chance, Kurama."

**"Chance? Chance for what?"**

"If this loopy eyed jerk thinks he's putting me away in that butt ugly statue, he's got another thing coming. I'm gonna prove to the entire world that this guy isn't a god by smashing that statue open and freeing all the imprisoned bijuu inside."

**"Hmph. Don't bother with that, Tails. I know the other seven bijuu pretty well. They're all assholes.**"

"That's not the point. We can't let this guy walk around thinking he can just capture and seal anyone he wants while make dumb speeches about pain. Robots...Dark magical statues...It's all the same thing."

"Then prepare to embrace pain, Kyuubi. This will be the ritual that will end your life." Pein said and slammed his hand on the ground.

**"Fuinjutsu: Genryu Kyufujin!" (Sealing Technique: Nine Phantom Dragons Consuming Seal!)**

The ancient statue opened up its mouth with a yawning hiss. It spewed out an ethereal blue mist that took the shape of twisting serpents, glowing with chakra slithered out from the utter blackness within. Tails counted nine dragons altogether swirling around him, all watching him with hungry glowing eyes.

**"Tails! Do not touch the dragons!" **Kurama warned. **"They will eat your soul."**

The nine phantom dragons snarled at the presence of the Kyuubi and lashed out all at once, trying to devour Tails. He spun his tails and maneuvered just out of reach of their gnashing teeth and snapping jaws.

"What kind of attacks will work on these things?" Tails asked as he zipped up and down, dodging their bites.

**"None. We must destroy the statue."**

"Got it," Tails nodded and charged a Chidori in his hand. It burned bight, shifting from blue to reddish purple, mixing and pulsing with demonic chakra . He hovered above the statue's head, still swooping just out of the dragons' reach.

"You can't escape," Pein said, then raised his arm and outstretched palm. **"Bansho Tenin!"**

That force again. He felt it when Pein used it on Kakashi. Like a black hole, pulling him in. It dispelled Tails' Chidori instantly and seized his body. The invisible force paralyzed his tails. It snatched him out of the air and Tails felt like he was being thrown into the vacuum of space and sent flying towards Pein's open palm. He was heading straight into the dragon's mouth.

It was like splashing into the ocean when the dragon snapped its jaws closed and swallowed Tails whole. Billions of people all over the world watched in horror as Tails lay suspended inside the belly of the dragon. Immediately, Tails felt weightlessness, his strength ebb away as wisps of red chakra seeped through his fur, out his eyes and mouth.

A new kind of chakra Tails had never felt, the mysterious unseen power of the void that was ever present, but hidden beyond all the other elements. Its grip was hard and icy. Tails saw the world going dimmer and blurrier as his life force drained slowly out of his body. He faintly heard the distorted voice of Pein echo in his ears.

"Look deep into my eyes so that you may understand pain before you die," he said. "This is the highest form of pain a Jinchuuriki can feel. When a soul is pulled from this world, separated from the wheel of Samsara, the fate of all heretics who tread the Outer Path of-"

"Shut...up!" Tails yelled, even as his demonic chakra poured out of his mouth. "I can't take any more of this pain talk! Kurama...help me..."

**"There's nothing I can do, Tails..." **Kurama's voice was faint and distant, more quiet than he had ever heard from him before.** "This is the one jutsu where I am powerless."**

Tails gagged, chocked, and writhed in agony as Kyuubi's chakra seeped out of his body, from his blank, expressionless eyes and his mouth. Inside the sealed world of the Kyuubi, the great nine tailed kitsune demon's spirit bubbled up and melted through the prison bars. Soon the dark world of his seal crumbled and everything slipped away and tumbled into the swirling black abyss.

**"Dark...It's too dark..." **"Kurama murmured as the burning light in his eyes disappeared.

"No..." Tails moaned faintly. "Kurama...please don't go."

**"Ha. Why so sad, Tails?" **Kurama spoke in a still, soft voice.** "Remember when we first met? You were so afraid of me. Terrified. So weak you were back then." **

Tails remembered everything that happened that day when he woke up inside the Kyuubi's seal. "Feels like such a long time ago...it's hard to remember what life was like before that day. Some people used to call me a demon because of my tails. I guess I was kinda happy when I knew it was true. I actually like being a demon. I don't want you go, Kurama. You're my friend. I need you, Kurama. I need your help to save the world."

It was almost over now. Pein could feel it. The greatest, most powerful of the Tailed Beasts was his.

"Farewell, Kyuubi no Kitsune."

* * *

Deep within the heart of Mt. Myoboku, Naruto sat under a waterfall, lotus style. It was a mystical waterfall, where pure golden oil, rich in senjutsu chakra washed over his head. So deep he was in his meditation that he barely noticed his master, Jiraiya coming to greet him.

"I've never seen you this still and quiet," Jiraiya said. "How long have you been like that?"

Naruto opened his eyes. "About three days."

"Damn, that's a long time. Who knew you had such a disciplined soul?"

"I think these chaos emeralds help," Naruto said. "They've got tons of senjutsu chakra in them." There were two chaos emeralds sitting next to him, drenched with glistening oil. The emeralds themselves radiated a soft hum in harmony with the natural energy around them.

"It's like I thought," Jiraiya said as he gazed deep into the pulsing core of the emeralds. "That Super mode of Sonic the Hedgehog is sort of like an advanced Sage mode. It's the outcome of what would happen if you could gather and control all the natural energy in the entire planet. Naruto, if we train deeper into this, if you could get all seven emeralds, you could enter a stage of chakra mastery that will be far more powerful than Super Sonic. No wonder Orochimaru is going bat shit insane over these emeralds."

"Orochimaru..." Naruto had learned to hate that name. "Is that what you've come to talk about, Ero-sennin?"

"Yes, but first let me show you this," Jiraiya unrolled a very large poster from his vest and he made a very stupid grin as he unrolled it and shoved it into Naruto's face.

Naruto pulled the poster back a bit. On Jiraiya's poster was, what else? A whole lot of naked chicks parading around, creating the most most nosebleed inducing picture he had ever seen. On the bottom, he read the title in big letters:

_**"Icha Icha 3D: Full Frontal Nudity!"**_

"This is it, Naruto. The latest and perhaps the greatest installment in the Icha Icha franchise. I'm not holding back anything with this one. My movie has been green lit and will appear in 3D. Isn't that great?"

Naruto looked at his sensei drooling with a far off look in his eyes. His hands were fiddling away in the air, no doubt groping an imaginary pair of boobs.

"That's it? Another movie? Why would I care about that?"

"That's important!" Jiraiya insisted. "You have to start thinking about what the ultimate stage of your sexy no jutsu technique might look like. It will be useful during production."

"Huh? You want me to put my sexy no jutsu on screen?"

"You keep on making all these new, more powerful Rasengans. I would hope that you would be equally applying your skills to your sexier line of ninjutsu. I mention this all now because if Orochimaru finds all the chaos emeralds, nobody in Konoha, perhaps nobody in the world will be alive to see my movie. I can't let that happen. Orochimaru...that bastard was always my harshest critic. Nitpicking about every tiny little writing flaw, pointing out all the plot holes, calling the work derivative, mocking the pacing..._Laughing at the sex scenes...ARGH!_" Jiraiya went rambling on. "He'd do anything to see my grand X-rated dreams go down in flames. This is his ultimate attack against me. He wouldn't know good literature if it was shoved up his snake hole."

"I don't care if he doesn't like it," Naruto said. "I don't like it either."

"Oh, but here's the part you will like. I plan to direct this film myself, so I no longer have time to be lazy on this case," Jiraiya's face hardened. "We've found Orochimaru's hideout. We know where he's keeping Sonic, where he's performing horrifying experiments on him to learn more about chaos energy. We sent a group to his island hideaway just a few days ago. Some of the platoon members are Mobians you met. We haven't heard back from them yet, but Sonic the Hedgehog is definitely there, I've confirmed that much. Whether he's alive or not, I can't say, but there's always a chance."

Naruto jumped up, ready for action. "That's awesome, Ero-sennin! Let's leave right now!"

"We will. Your training is done for now. But there's still one last thing we must do."

"What's that?"

"Before we go, the Elder Sage wants to meet with you," Jiraiya said. "He's seen your future and he's a got a prophecy for you."

Naruto looked confused. "He can see my future? How?"

"This always happens when one delves deep into sage training," Jiraiya explained as they headed over to the Sage's mountain palace. "By opening yourself up and becoming attuned to the natural energy of the world around you, pathways start to open up and you can see how you fit with the greater pattern of the Universe. Once you ascend to these cosmic heights, the truth of your destiny will be made clear. Spend a few hundred years mastering the art of senjutsu and you too will see the future in your dreams."

"Did you ever get a prophecy, Ero-Sennin?"

"Yes," he said. "Just like you, when I learned Sage training. And when I heard it, it changed my life forever. He said I would become the world's biggest pervert. That I would travel around the world and write books."

"You don't need to be a prophet to know those things," Naruto said, unimpressed.

"You did back then," Jiraiya said. "I was a shitty writer and no girl would ever talk to me. Now all that's changed, of course. And then he said some other things. Some surprising things."

"Like what?"

"I'll tell you later. Let's just see what the Sage has to tell you. By the way," Jiraiya stopped him just before the cave entrance to the Sage's chamber, "The Sage may look like a senile old fool, but he's really an ancient sacred being. He's very powerful and very wise. Please show your respect."

They entered the hall of the Elder Toad Sage where Naruto met the wrinkliest old toad he had ever seen. The giant toad sat on a throne of stone hewn from the mountain, eyes closed, unmoving, probably busy contemplating the deepest mysteries. He wore a tasseled professor's hat on his head and and a necklace with a mystical purple orb. _"That must mean he's smart," _Naruto thought, looking up at the Sage's cap. The two elder toads Fukusaku and his wife, Shima, stood on each side of his massive throne, wrapped in their cloaks, waiting in silent reverence for the great Toad mystic to speak.

"Hey, Geezer Sage," Naruto's loud voice reverberated in the sacred hall of the Toads. Jiraiya smacked his forehead. "Ero-sennin says you have a prophecy for me."

The Elder Sages's eyes cracked opened and he squinted down at Naruto with a warm, grandfatherly smile. "Yes...I believe I do," the Sage spoke in a soft, withered voice. "Just like with all who have come to train under these mountains like Jiraiya-chan here. Now your time has come, Uzumaki Naruto. I had a dream about you. Your path has become opened to me."

"He remembered your name," Jiraiya said, smirking as leaned against the pillar. "We're off to a good start."

"Let's see if I can remember it, though...ah yes," The Sage closed his eyes, deep in thought. "Times are changing. You will be a part of the dawning of a new age in history, whose effects will stretch far beyond the Five Nations, covering over the planet and extending to the stars above and the realms beyond. Indeed, the very heavens will shake with what's to come. The time will come when you must battle for the sake of the universe, the very fabric of reality. For an era will come that will be unspeakably..."

Naruto drew in closer to the throne hanging onto every word. "Yes? Yes?"

'...Evil."

"Evil? What do you mean "evil?" Naruto asked.

The Sage spoke his words slowly and carefully. "As we speak, there are forces at work that are moving swiftly and will cover the world in utter darkness."

"Wait!" Jiraiya interrupted. He looked even more upset than Naruto. "Er...by any chance, do you see anything about my new movie in this prophecy?"

The Sage leaned back on his throne as he thought it over. "Oh, that? It will flop."

"No!" Jiraiya went blue in the face as he felt his blood drain away. "How badly?"

"Severely."

Fukusaku closed his eyes and shook his head, grumbling, _"Bah. After all that talk about Naruto needing to show respect for the Sage, to see you bring up such a crude topic, Jiraiya-chan. Shameful. Absolutely shameful."_

"Time has moved on and your series has grown old and stale," the Sage continued, now speaking to Jiraiya. "You've taken too long to publish new books and they are now viewed as tired and cliche'd. The series will die unless-"

"Hey! This is my prophecy!" Naruto shouted and kicked Jiraiya aside. "You already had yours, Ero-sennin! What's gonna happen to me?"

The Sage turned back towards Naruto. "Oh, you? What was I talking about with you again?" the Sage asked absently. "Were we not just talking about adult movies? I forgot the other thing."

"Something about evil coming into the world!" Naruto shouted. "Get back to that!"

"Fine. Carry on with that boring prophecy of doom you were doing," Jiraiya muttered. "Like I hadn't heard _those _before..."

"Yes. Please get back to that and finish already," Shima said. "I've got dinner burnin' on the stove. Got some fresh slugs stewin'. New recipe I've been cookin' up. I can't wait to see Naruto-chan gobble it up and then see how much he likes it."

"Now's not the time to be worryin' about yer dinner, Ma," Fukusaku said. "This is the end of the world we're talkin' about. Hardcore evil comin' to the world."

"So? I got a prophecy too once. Right here in this sacred hall. That my cookin' is what's gonna save the world. Maybe you just have ta feed the Kyuubi. He just needs a decent meal!"

Naruto cringed and looked ready to vomit.

"Ah, yes. Evil. That's what we were talking about," the Sage beamed with a smile.

"Terrible evil. It will begin when the eyes of Rikudo Sennin will once again return to the world in full power. This will be the first sign of the new age that awaits us. An age where demons reign."

"Demons?" Naruto repeated.

"Those who want to capture the bijuu are making a terrible mistake," said the Sage. "They will soon break free and will run amok, spreading their chakra all over the world. And there are many more out there than the Nine Tailed Beasts. The Demon chakra will leak out into our plane of existence, more abundant than ever before. The Legions of Hell will arise. Ancient horrors will be awakened from their slumber. Creatures of chaos and evil and madness entering through forbidden gates. The demons that already dwell among us will become even stronger. Fiercer. Even the good ones won't be able to contain their bloodlust. One is destined to lead them, to command the armies of Hell. Calling upon the storms of chaos, he will strike form the darkness and scorch the earth with hell blazing lightning. When that happens...there will..."

A trickle of blood leaked from the Toad Sage's mouth, dripping over his old wrinkled lips. A dark foreboding presence hung heavily in the air, pressing down on them. The Sage struggled to get the next words out.

"...then, there will be a war. Nations of shinobi clashing along with forces that have not entered the mortal world since eons ago. How this war will end, I cannot say."

Naruto sighed and groaned. "Why are these prophecies always so vague?"

"You need more specifics?" asked the Sage. "Well, you can expect to fight a giant octopus monster at one point. Defeating it will lead to a higher state of enlightenment. Keep an eye out for that one. But there is one other thing I see..."

Naruto looked right into the Sage's eye as he spoke.

"You will die, Naruto."

"Die? I'm going to die? When?"

"Soon.

"How am I going to die?"

"Brutally. By the hand of the one of the most vile of Demon Lords."

"What kind of demon is this?" Naruto asked.

"Are you sure you want the answer to this, Naruto?"

"Tell me, Old Grampa Sage!"

"You've met the demon already. You've carried his soul within you your whole life, but he has been passed on to another. You know of whom I speak, don't you? The demon I saw in my vision. The two tailed fox."

"Tails?"

"Is that the name you call him? The name I heard whispering in my dream was "Miles Prower."

A deep silence fell over the vast hall of the toads.

"Bullshit!" Naruto finally said. "This is so stupid. Do you have any idea what you're talking about? Why would Tails wanna kill me? You just got the wrong prediction, right?"

"I was not the first to hear this prophecy," the Sage said. "It has been passed all around the realms of the spirit animals all over the Earth. The Elder Snake Sage revealed these same visions."

Jiraiya gritted his teeth. "Damn! Orochimaru must have heard this same prophecy. He must know everything."

"What do I do about this?" Naruto asked.

"The only way to change your fate is to kill the demon first. Whatever happens, one of you must die. Then the fate of the rest of the world can be decided."

"I gotta go," Naruto said hurriedly and started his way out.

"Where are you going, Naruto-chan?" asked the Sage

"I need to get to Mobius as soon as possible."

"How do you plan on doing that?" Jiraiya asked.

"I don't know. I really don't know. This whole prophecy was so stupid...," Naruto said before slamming the doors behind him.

The doors opened again and Naruto poked his head in.

"...Except the part about fighting a giant octopus. That was cool." He slammed the doors again.

The Sage shook his head. "Go after him, Jiraiya-chan. Tell him about what I told you long ago."

Jiraiya heaved a sigh. "This was handled very poorly."

* * *

Naruto stepped out of the sacred hall and made his way back to the Toad couple's hut. He didn't care how disgusting that dinner would be. Food was the furthest thing from his mind. The part that foretold his death didn't bother him. You don't dream of becoming a the world's greatest ninja if you're afraid of death. No. The worst part was who his executioner would be. Would he have to fight Tails? Would he have to kill him? Could he actually do that? Would it even be possible for him to do evil, let alone end the world?

_Yeah. I know he could, because I could also turn evil and kill everyone if things were just a little different."_

Yes. It was a bitter thought to swallow. Naruto knew Tails could go evil because he knew that he too could do the same thing. Many days of training and meditation opened Naruto up ti a dark side living inside him. A shadow borne from all the hatred and sadness. It was crazy to imagine it, but had it, too. And Kyuubi's been playing around with the kid's dark side, bringing it closer to the surface every day.

"Tails, you're a good kid. I know you are. You're not gonna let that dumb demon fox turn you evil and plunge the world into darkness. Are you?"

"What are you looking at, you creepy doll?" Naruto scowled at the Tails Doll he picked up in the desert. "Damn, you're freaky. I bet this is all your fault," he grumbled and kicked the doll across the hut.

"That didn't turn out as well as we thought, did it," Jiraiya said as he entered the hut, bending low to avoid the ceiling. He shook a jar if sake. "Here. Come drink with me."

"I don't drink," Naruto said, clearly frustrated.

"Sure you do. I spike your ramen all the time," Jiraiya poured him a cup, filling it all the way to the top. "It helps loosen the coils. You'll be a Sage soon. You can hold in a lot of alcohol. And you'll need something to dampen the taste of that disgusting swill those Toads keep shoving down your throat."

"I don't want to talk about that bullshit prophecy if that's why your here" Naruto said. "Just tell me. Do you know of any technique that would send me to Mobius right now?"

Jiraiya shook his head and shrugged. "Not that I know of. You idiotically let the Sword of Izunagi get shattered, remember? The Yondaime didn't make any more of those."

"So let's go find Orochimaru. Take me to that miserable snake island. After we kick his ass and save Sonic, we can use his sword to get back there. Then we can-Uuuughhh." Naruto fell to his knees as a wild, sharp pain jabbed him in the stomach.

"You feeling all right?" Jiraiya asked. "If you're out of it, there's no point in messing with Orochimaru now and getting yourself killed."

"I'm fine. Really," Naruto insisted. To prove it, he took a swig of the sannin's sake and sat down. "And I've accepted the Geezer Sage's prophecy. It doesn't change anything, though. I'm not gonna kill Tails."

Jiraiya gestured for Naruto to toss him back the sake jar. "Nobody said you had to."

Naruto threw the sake back into the Sannin's hand. "Do the Geezer Sage's prophecies always come true?"

"He claims they do," Jiraiya sat at the table across from Naruto and poured himself a saucer of sake, mumbling something about young people who always drink out of the bottle like yakuza thugs. "Personally, I can only tell you from my own experiences when he told me prophecies about my own life."

"What did he tell you?" Naruto asked. "It wasn't just about being a huge pervert, was it?"

Jiraiya shook his head and took a sip. "No. It wasn't. After he told me all those things, he told me about the prophecy of the Chosen One. The Child of Destiny. And that I would train him as my apprentice. He was supposed to be the one who would bring peace and balance to the Shinobi world. The Sage didn't tell me who it would be, but I have thought about those words every single day."

"Your prophecy sounds a lot less depressing than mine," Naruto said glumly.

"Really?" Jiraiya looked surprised and set the sake saucer down, "because that prediction turned to be one of the biggest sources of misery in my life."

"Why?" Naruto looked at him in surprise. "Training the chosen one destined to save the world sounds awesome."

"It didn't turn out that way," Jiraiya said, contemplating his reflection in the sake bowl. "Because I've seen many of my pupils die. Their lives taken by war and suffering. I met many great ninjas who wanted to fulfill the role of the Chosen One, like Tsunade's lover Dan, or her little brother, Nawaki. For awhile I thought the Yondaime would be the Chosen One, but then I saw him die, too. It's been a long, bitter journey since I heard the Sage's words and the world is still no closer to finding peace. I watched as my sensei grew older and weaker as he donned that Hokage hat again. The stress drained the life out his bones. Tsunade became a drunken gambler and Orochimaru turned into a murdering psychopath. The whole damn village became a much nastier place. You know what I'm talking about. You grew up with them. Senju Hashirama's vision for the Leaf was starting to become lost. I felt much better to live in exile. That prophecy that gave me so much hope in my youth ended just serving me only to point out all the failures I made in my life."

"Maybe that Geezer toad should stopping making predictions if they all suck so much," Naruto said. "Tails turning evil...killing me...destroying the world...it doesn't have to be that way. I'll be there for him. I'll be there to pull him out of the brink ."

"Remind me about something," Jiraiya asked. There was a Didn't Tails grow up as an orphan on an island. All alone? Starving to death? No family? No friends?"

"Yeah. He doesn't like to talk about that, but I saw it all."

"In the middle of a war with Dr. Ivo Robotnik who pretty much took over the world?"

"Uh-huh?"

"And he had a certain gift that changed his appearance? That set him apart from everybody else?

Naruto eyed his sensei suspiciously. "Yeah. Why're you asking?"

"No real reason. It just reminded me of a someone I knew from my past. He was all alone in the world, too. I thought I'd lend him a hand. Train him to fight and find his way in the world. I hoped to make something good come out of that miserable run down village. Wow was he special."

"Maybe it won't, but as depressing as this prediction sounds, your little friend Tails murdering the shit out of you and everyone in the world, you should still take the Sage's words seriously, because..."

"It can happen. I had many great students besides the Yondaime. There was one in particular. Someone I met in my travels outside the village. Now that boy was special,: Jiraiya said wistfully. "Something you would only see once a millennium. I just knew he was destined to fulfill the prophecy and save the world. All the signs pointed to him, but..."

"He died, didn't he?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya nodded slowly. "That's what I heard. He didn't turn out at all the way I expected. And I'm talking about somebody who used to be a really sweet kid. A gentle, sensitive, peace loving soul. But I guess his war torn past caught up to him and he couldn't hold onto the incredible power given to him. People can develop in all kinds of unexpected ways."

"Anyway, I think you already made up your mind for how you're going to handle this. I hope you guide your fox friend well. Heaven knows an eight year old's gonna need help managing an ancient demon living inside him. In the end, you guys will save the world and when it's all over, you can bring him to the premiere of my new movie. He's pervert from what I hear, isn't he?"

"Don't corrupt him. He's really really impressionable."

"Ha ha. I'll make him one of my biggest fans. Far better he should grow up a fan of my series than whatever crap the kids are watching these days."

Naruto clutched his stomach. A stabbing pain returned worse than ever. It like nothing he ever felt shot through him as if someone stuck a flaming knife in his stomach and yanked his guts out. and he collapsed to the floor.

"Naruto! what's wrong?"

"I don't know," Naruto strained to speak. "I just feel like shit for some reason. I can't really explain it."

"Are you going into labor or something? Because that's what you look like. Has this ever happened before?"

A cold sweat ran down Naruto's face. "Remember when you tried to open my my Kyuubi seal? It's like that. I think it's Tails. It has to be. Someone's messing with Tails and the Kyuubi. They're separating."

Naruto lurched forward, dragging his feet towards the door. "I've wasted too much time here. I can't stick around here while my little brother is suffering and I'm not there for him.

"Calm down, Naruto," Jiraiya urged. "Breathe deeply."

Naruto squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. Images of Tails trapped in faraway place surrounded by darkness, alone and terrified. He was chained down and strange serpentine beings were tearing through his flesh while the little fox could do nothing but cry out in agony as the Kyuubi's spirit was being pulled out of his disemboweled stomach. A shadowy figure loomed above, watching everything with dark violet eyes. Circles rippled across the man's eyes as he reached out with a hand to take the Kyuubi.

"Tails...what the hell is happening to you?"

* * *

The Statue's eyelids began to slowly creak open, revealing nine hideous, alien eyes. The chains loosened. It's limbs twitched to life. The bit that sealed its snapped off. A hiss of musty air escaped as its mouth opened wide and exhaled a mist from deep within.

Tails felt his life and soul draining away, disappearing into the black maw of the dark statue. His bright warm fur grew cold and his body went limp as the strands of red chakra were growing smaller and thinner.

Tails let out a strangled cry. "Kurama, please talk to me. Say something. Anything."

No answer.

Pein was amazed the little fox had so much chakra inside him. "It took a long time, but we finally have it. Just one more left..."

It was tough work. Even for the man who called himself God. Normally, it took all of Akatsuki to help seal a demon, and even then, the process took days. This time, Pein did it alone in only minutes. His mastery over the Rinnegan, his bond with the Gedo Mazo was getting stronger. There wasn't even a need to seal the bijuu in tail order anymore. Soon, the Kyuubi would be sealed away in the Outer Path, and Tails's soulless corpse would crumple to the floor dead.

"...and the Nine Tails is mine."

"Not yet," a voice called out from above. One very familiar to Pein. He swerved his head only to be met with a blinding flash of light, followed by an explosion that shook the arena.

The whole stage became shrouded in smoke. Even Pein's godly eyes couldn't see through the thickness of the smoke, but he heard the unnatural, haunting moan of the statue. It grunted as if in pain as bits and pieces of wood and stone crumbled off its face.

"The statue..." Pein looked up. Someone dared to attack the Statue of the Outer Path.

The smoke of the explosion cleared away and a silhouetted figure emerged.

Uchiha Itachi.

He hung onto the side of the statue's face, his long black hair and cloak billowed gracefully behind him in the winds of the explosion. His gazed down intently into Pein's Rinnegan. Pein leered back. The eyes of the two dojoutsu masters locked onto each other for a moment, their fearsome chakra brimming between them, waiting to see what the other would do next.

**"Shinra Tensei!" (Heavenly Push of the Omnipresent God)**

In that split second that Pein launched his deadly gravity attack, Itachi flicked out a kunai and jammed it straight into the creatures eye socket. The bone shattering force of Pein's attack hit him dead on, causing Itachi to burst into a flock of black crows. They flapped and squawked all around the statue. Itachi materialized out of the swarm behind the Akatsuki leader with his kunai. Pein spun around and met the traitor with his sword.

"Even you can't fool my eyes, Itachi," Pein said. "Did you think I wouldn't see you?"

"No. I'm just a distraction," said Itachi, "so that you wouldn't remove the tag I pinned to Gedo Mazo."

Attached to Itachi's kunai was a small scroll with strange arcane sigils. The letters flared to life, jumped right off the page, and crawled down the statue's rocky face, and into its mouth. A violent tremor and a deep rumbling emanated from its bowels. The statue's entire body crackled with unstable energy.

"What have you done?" Pein demanded

"Reversed the chakra flow."

Gedo Mazo howled another terrible cry. The Nine Phantom Dragons twisted their long serpentine necks, thrashing wildly back and forth, making piercing screeching sounds that could make a mortal's ears bleed. Their pale blue forms turned into a dark fiery orange and and all the demon fox chakra that was stolen rushed back into Tails' body with the full force of a tsunami. As the sudden power of the Kyuubi's chakra crashed into Tails, the fox was thrown out of the dragon's mouth out into the open air.

The statue raised its head upwards to the sky. A prismatic blast of seven colorful energies sprayed out of its mouth.

"The other demons..." Pein rushed through the seals to dispel the statue before the unthinkable would happen.

"It's too late," said Itachi. "Those who do not wish to die should leave now. I don't know exactly what's going to happen myself."

Finally, the concert goers jumped out of their seats, screaming and scrambling for their lives. Even the untrained could sense the wave of primal killer intent rising up from within the statue.

Tails slowly opened his eyes and tried to sit up, rubbing his aching head. "Unnghhh...Kurama...? You're back?"

**"Yes. Look, kit. Above you."**

Gedo Mazo roared once more as its dark, fell body was engulfed in shining light, then exploded in a blast of demonic fire. A pillar of light shot out into the heavens that was seen all across the continent and sensed all over the planet. The spirits of seven demons spewed out the statue's mouth, finally released from their dark prison. They swirled around in a kaleidoscopic spiral of yellow, blue, green, red, white, silver, and orange energies. Tails heard their ecstatic howls, celebrating their freedom. It was terrifying to behold, and overwhelmingly beautiful. Tails felt so alive and energized as the demonic winds rush past him, electrifying his fur. He heard the voices of the demons whispering in his ear.

Tails could briefly make out their spectral forms, but he could see them smiling. A sand raccoon, a flaming shadow cat, a hulking sea monster, a fiery gorilla, a swiftly galloping silver horse/dolphin, a gray slug, and a giant bug. After circling around Tails, reveling in their freedom, they blasted off into the night sky, scattering all over the world in seven different directions, leaving comet trails of sparks in their wake.

**"Looks like you got what you wanted, Tails. The bijuu are free. All of them."**

"Where are they going?" Tails wondered, gazing up at the open night sky.

**"Wherever they want. They're free."**

"How?"

The Kyuubi chuckled. **"It seems we have an unexpected ally," **Kurama pointed to Itachi and Pein facing off.

"Itachi? He saved us?"

Pein didn't show any emotion on his face as he calmly dispelled the statue. A gate of dark, purple flames reached out and engulfed the Gedo Mazo statue, pulling it back into the nether realm whence it came. But not before it reached out and snared Kakashi in its grip.

"No! Kakashi-sensei!" Tails sprang up and grabbed Kakashi's hand, straining to pull him free from the statue's stony grip.

"Tails...it's okay," Kakashi said softly, smiling beneath his mask. "I don't want you to get pulled in with me."

"B-but Sensei..."

"Go, Tails. Run."

With one final moan, Gedo Mazo sank into the darkness of the gate, taking Kakashi with him. Both of them disappeared into a the dread world of dark flames and living shadows.

The flames snuffed out and the concert hall was dark and silent as a tomb. The demons were gone, leaving behind just few passing wisps of chakra. The statue was gone. Tails stood there alone and right in the middle of a standoff.

"What happened to Kakashi-sensei? Was he-?"

"Sent to the nether world along with the statue," Itachi said plainly. "Even I don't know his ultimate fate. Maybe dead."

"Is it sinking in now, kitsune?" asked Pein. "The pain of losing your sensei? That is only the beginning."

"I didn't lose him," Tails said, staring hard into the Akatsuki Leader's multi-rimmed eyes. "He'll get out. He has to."

"Fear not, Tails-kun," said Itachi. "Kakashi might be able to return. Unfortunately, you can't rely on him for now."

"It's your fault things happened this way, Itachi," Pein said. "I expended a great deal of chakra to decrease the sealing time, because I knew someone would come to rescue the kitsune, but I never thought it would be you, Itachi."

Itachi stared at Pein impassively.

"Everything we worked for, Itachi, you have destroyed," Pein said. "Even I never could have predicted that you would betray us."

"Then your eyes can't see as well as they say," Itachi finally replied. "I was never truly interested in your plans to create this bijuu weapon of yours, or this senseless plan for world domination."

Pein brought the tip of his sword close to Itachi's eyes, ready to cut them out with a swipe of his blade. "In all of Akatsuki, I held you in the highest regard. I entrusted you to lead the capture of the Kyuubi. With your mastery of the Mangekyou Sharingan, you were like the eyes of God. Now you have violated my word and damned yourself forever."

Itachi said nothing.

"A pity. You were a true shinobi, Itachi. I don't know what your motive for this betrayal is, or why you would want to release all the bijuu," Pein went on, "but you're probably planning on protecting the kitsune now. I can't let you interfere."

Another Akatsuki ninja stepped out of the misty shadows. He was like Pein, with the same eyes and thick piercings, but with longer red hair. Pein motioned to the second Pein who slammed his hand down and produced a summoning cloud.

"Damn. Don't summon me like that," Deidara stumbled out of the cloud in daze. "Being thrown through space time like that makes me wanna puke, un. It's been a rough, rough night."

"Deidara," the first Pein spoke. "You want to kill Itachi so badly? Then do it. Akatsuki's orders."

Deidara's tired eyes lit up madly and he smiled as he turned to Itachi, who looked as stoic and uncaring as ever. "Really? Well that changes everything. So you're a traitor, Itachi? How interesting, hmm. Can't say I'm surprised, though. Your eyes wouldn't know loyalty if it exploded in your face."

"Loyalty amongst the likes of you doesn't interest me, Deidara," said Itachi.

"Yeah, I'm sure you said that to your clan just before you slaughtered them all, and your little brother, too." Deidara reached into his satchel for his clay bombs "I"ll see to it that you'll know death once I blast it in your face."

"Wait!" Tails called out and ran between them. "Itachi! I just have to know. Why? Why did you help me? Whose side are you even on? Why did we have to go through that whole fight?...And don't say something lame like it was to test me."

"It was to test you."

Deidara groaned. "Damn it, Itachi. We're all tired of your enigmatic idiocy. Just die, already."

Itachi kept his gaze fixed on Tails, ignoring Deidara's ranting. "Tails-kun, there are far more powerful jutsus out there that you will have to face one day. If you could succeed in dispelling my jutsus, you might stand a chance against even more powerful techniques. Like Pein's. You've done well tonight." Itachi swished a new pair of shades over his eyes. "I'll leave the defeat of the Akatsuki Leader in your hands." Itachi then pulled out his guitar for one last wicked solo, then disappeared in a swarm of flapping and squawking crows.

**"Is there anything that human does that isn't supercool and sexy?" **Kurama wondered, watching as the crows took flight.

"...Hey, Kyuubi?" Tails piped up. "I don't ask for much while you're living in my head and everything, but could you not think about creepy stuff like your Itachi crush while in there?"

**"Come on, kit. You were thinking it too."**

"I totally wasn't!" Tails protested. His white cheeks blushed red.

**"Now, don't be jealous, Tails. You'll always have the number one spot in my heart."**

Tails clutched the sides of his head, closed his eyes and screamed. "AHHH! Get out of my head right now, you freaky fox!"

**"Hahahahahahaah!" **the fox demon laughed uproariously.** "You are so much fun to tease. It's great to be back inside you, kit. I wouldn't wanna be anywhere else. Now let's have some fun and go on a crazy rampage and crush Akatsuki!" **

"Hey, kitsune boy," Deidara hovered on his clay bird directly above Tails. "I'll settle things with you later, after I'm done with Itachi. If you survive the Leader's wrath that is, un. Don't disappoint me."

Deidara flew off on his hunt for Itachi, leaving Tails alone to face Pein.

"Kakashi's gone. So is Itachi," Tails said to himself. "But he said I could beat him alone. Guess I'll just have to believe in him."

"Don't even bother," Pein said, "After what you just experienced, having your soul nearly ripped out of your body, it'll be awhile before you can properly mold any chakra."

"Hey! You worry about your own chakra. I'll worry about mine. I'll still fight the two of you!" Tails said defiantly.

"Two? You are mistaken about the paths of Pain, kitsune," Pein said. "I told you before that you have yet to experience the meaning of true pain," he made a grand circling gesture with his arm. "Swirling through the ever turning wheel of Samsara, there are many paths that lead to pain, but they all come from different sources. From the realm of Demons, the realm of Hell, the realm of Humans, the realm of Animals, the realm of Ghosts, and the realm of God. All these are pathways to pain."

Tails quirked an eyebrow. "What is this guy talking about?"

**"I really have no idea," **said Kurama. **"But look around you, kit. The place is empty. It's just us in here. Go ahead and release a couple of tails. We'll incinerate him."**

Tails glanced around the empty arena. Not a soul was left.

"Yeah. That sounds good to me," Tails unleashed a tornado of red chakra that spiraled around him, threatening to tear down the massive arena.

"Preta Path. Come," Pein called.

There was a rush of wind and a heavy shadow descended over Tails. A great big hand shot out from the shadows and grabbed his head in a thick vise. Tails briefly caught a glimpse of the surprise attacker. He had Pein's eyes and red hair, and piercings, but he was huge. Like a vacuum in his palm, his touch sucked Tails' strength away. His meaty hands burned red hot as they siphoned away Tails' chakra. Just as soon as his Kyuubi chakra came back and he got the chance to enjoy releasing an explosive storm that rushed through his fur. Now it was gone again, sucked into the arms of the third path of pain. Tails fainted on the floor. Even the color in his eyes and fur were darkened away, leaving him looking drained and withered. Only the dimmest flicker of chakra remained, burning steady in his heart.

"Preta Path. This is the path of pain of the Hungry Ghost Realm," Pein said as Tails' unfocused eyes closed and he slipped away into unconsciousness.

"Search his body," Pein ordered his other. "He might be hiding something."

Preta Path kept a tight grip on Tails as he searched his body. To break contact would give Tails a chance to recover. Looking through his tails, he found a small out a small gem.

It was a small green emerald, glowing with incredible power. When Pein removed the gem, it magically grew into a brilliant man-sized emerald.

"This is the Master Emerald," said the summoner Pein. "So the kitsune had it all this time."

"We'll take it," said Pein. "Mobius won't need guardians anymore to protect their most sacred artifacts. Not in my era of peace. Come, Asura Path."

The fourth Pein came stomping in from the shadows. A hulking brute of a man - his misshapen face was barely human, dotted with gruesome spiked piercings and thick black rods plugged into his skin. With a savage grunt, he reached a hand through the folds of his cloak and tore open his own chest. A thick biomechanical fluid dripped from inside his robotic carapace. He took the giant emerald into his hands and sealed it up inside his stomach, drenching the Emerald's surface in alien fluids. The robot Pein's Rinnegan eyes glowed, fluctuating between a pale violet light and a radioactive green.

"Asura Path will protect the Emerald," the leader Pein said. "It will be useful to us later. We will now return to base and restart the sealing process again in secret. It may take awhile before the statue is ready, so the kitsune will need to be locked away in a place where he can't escape."

"I can create a prison like that," Konan offered. "We will make a dungeon fashioned from paper, set deep in the earth, fortified to block chakra sensing. Nobody, not even the best chakra sensors will be able to find him."

Pein nodded. "Good. Now prepare yourself, Konan. There's going to be a big battle waiting for us outside."

* * *

Pein blasted the main doors down with a gesture of his hand and stepped into the open air. His opponents were waiting for him, just as he expected.

Downtown Station Square was now set up as a war zone.

The Guardian Unit of Nations had arrived and barricaded the city center. With his all seeing eyes, Pein scanned the entire perimeter. Thousands of GUN soldiers came rushing in, the clamoring of their boots and their guns locking in place echoed in the streets. Marching in with them were the Hunter series of humanoid robots armed with laser rifles. Tanks came rumbling down the road, holding enough firepower in its cannons to vaporize a small town. Ever since Chaos ravaged the city, and the Black Arms invasion, and then Orochimaru, GUN decided to get serious. Snipers hid on the rooftops, crouching behind the upper windows, moving through the shadows in silence. They thought they were concealed, but Pein counted them all.

He looked up to a massive warship with the GUN insignia proudly displayed. Atop the airship's bridge, the Commander of GUN stood proudly on the edge, in full view of his armada. His long black leather coat flapped in the breeze. Light glinted off the medals on his chest. His hands held on tight to a decorated sword by his waist. A very imposing presence indeed, Pein thought. They need him here to boost up the morale.

A brave man, Pein thought from the look in the man's eyes. No chakra trained powers whatsoever and yet he dared to challenge him in person. Pein knew nothing of GUN's leader, but he recognized the bat agent hovering by his side. He knew that she had been spying on Akatsuki's affairs for a long time. He was aware about her gifts for stealing and spying. She could probably give even Zetsu the slip. She had fought well against Akatsuki before, even managing to wound Deidara. She could be useful to Akatsuki if she lives through this, Pein thought. Perhaps she could be tested.

The message of this setup was clear: The forces of Mobius were ready to raise Hell against him.

"_Good_," Pein thought as he looked up towards the sky. The skies turned blood red. Dark red clouds, saturated with the chakra of demons. _"I will show them Hell."_

The GUN Commander stood dangerously close to the bridge's edge, looking down on the Akatsuki Leader.

"Agent Rouge. What intel have you gathered about Pein?" he asked.

"Well, he's wealthy," Rouge said, grinning a little. "His group made _a lot _of money off the bounty hunting market, and collected tons of treasure."

"Did you steal anything from them?"

Rouge looked at him, shocked. "From these guys? Oh, no. Hon, I love jewels and gold enough to pull some crazy stunts, but steal from that guy? Nooooo thank you!"

The Commander furrowed his brow. It troubled him to see his top spy look so unnerved. "I'm assuming he can see things the rest of us can't?"

"That and a whole lot more. Everybody in Akatsuki takes orders from this guy. He's been setting up a presence in Westside Island for the past few months, leading Akatsuki through the shadows, hunting down Tails, tracking down bounties, and assassinating our own people. In the short time he's been here, he's amassed a very large following of people who worship him as a god. Most of his worshippers and cultists are also based on Westside Island."

"Why Westside Island?"

"That's where Tails was born. The people on that island have been ranting about Tails being a monster for the past eight years. When it became clear that Akatsuki wanted to capture and seal away the demon, they all jumped on board with Pein's cause. To them, he's the god that will purify the world from demons and bring peace back to Mobius."

"Ludicrous," the Commander scoffed. "Such backwards, brutish islander behavior. Slavishly bending their knees to the first sign of power. To think that this still goes on in our day and age. Those primitive islanders have always been so behind the times."

"That's another reason why they claim Tails is a demon. They think his inventor skills are fiendish gifts."

"His followers worship him. He claims to hate evil and loves peace."

"Don't they all? That's usually where the trouble starts with these people," said the Commander. "Do we know what his abilities are?"

"I don't think he received the title of "God" by personality alone," Rouge said. "He's strong. Very strong. What can't he do is probably the better question."

The Commander lifted up a pair of binoculars and used them to look directly into the Akatsuki Leader's eyes.

"He does carry himself well, with a divine presence around himself," the Commander said. "Not like that grinning psychopath, Orochimaru. That gaze of his...it's like he really thinks he can wipe us out just by looking at us."

"There's something very funny about those eyes," Rouge said. "They're not human. I've never seen anything like them."

"I have," the Commander said.

"Sir?"

"I was a long long time ago. I never thought I would ever see those eyes again, and I never imagined I would be fighting someone who has them. Do you know what he wants?"

"Their original purpose was to seal the fox demon in Tails to power up some kind of super weapon. Now they want to take over Mobius so that they can use this planet's resources for their war on whatever planet they came from."

"I see they've managed to capture Miles Prower. I thought it was just rumors. Is it true that he is a demon host?"

"It's all true," Rouge said, she gazed down at Tails, who was held captive by the big Pein. "The poor little thing. He looks so helpless. Like you'd never think there's anything evil inside him."

"It's a clever hiding place for a demon," the Commander said. "But you saw it, didn't you?"

Rouge nodded slowly. "I saw him transform once. When he got angry and desperate. It was scary. Like a total personality switch. One minute, Tails is this sweet little happy fox. Next thing you know he's on a raging warpath, destroying everything in sight. When the faced the enemy shinobi, Uchiha Sasuke, Tails tore him to shreds easily. He crushed his bones with his bare hands. Even that Orochimaru snake was nervous and had to retreat."

"I see. And there's no way to control this?"

"Not by any means we have. Unless we can find a way to exorcise the demon."

"Pity. Then we'll just have to take this opportunity to eliminate him. Now. While he's weak."

Rouge almost dropped her binoculars. "You're going to kill him?"

"His status as a wanted criminal still stands. If the fox boy dies, the demon dies with him," said the Commander. "Or at least it gets sent back to Hell. Isn't that right?"

"Yes...that's probably true." She didn't like where this conversation was going.

"This is a golden opportunity, Rouge. We might not get a chance like this again. We'll take Pein out along with the demon in one hit."

"Commander. That's Sonic the Hedgehog's friend. He's-

"Just his measly sidekick. More of a liability that got in the way that any actual help the way I see it."

"Still, You can't just kill him like it's no big deal."

"Sonic can find a new sidekick. There are millions who can take his place. Probably someone better. Anyway, Sonic's not here and he may never come back."

"He's helped us before. Tails has a brilliant mind. We can't-"

"Enough!" The Commander cut her off. "I watched that monster vaporize some of my best men. I'll never forget the look of devastation when he turned them to dust in the blink of an eye Whether this fox was a friend of yours at some point doesn't matter anymore. This isn't an act of cruelty, Rouge. It's mercy. That demon is probably torturing him on the inside. We're going to free him from his pain."

"Sorry, Tails..." Rouge put aside her binoculars and turned away.

Pein began to step forward. The soldiers in the front lines flinched, their rifles were shaking in their hands. A few almost dropped.

"I have what I came for," Pein announced. "Stand aside and you may all live for today."

"What an arrogant son of a bitch. Look at him. Cooly mocking us like that. Like he's so above it all. He's still a man. Even if half the planet thinks he's a god, he's not. Tonight we'll show what a charlatan he really is." The Commander unsheathed his sword. "Fire at that bastard. Fire everything we got!"

GUN's forces unleashed the force of their arsenal on Pein. The cool night air lit up with heavy fire. Missiles, bombs, lasers, and bullets all went flying towards the one man who called himself God and his outstretched palms.

**"Shinra Tensei."**

Two words.

That's all it took. It hit them like a nuclear blast. Just two words spoken by the lone man in the black cloak had the power to turn everything upside down and tear the planet's mightiest army to shreds.

The air rippled with a force that grabbed all missiles and threw them right back at GUN. Pein's power pulled the streets up like a dusty old rug and GUN's tanks and jeeps went flying into the air, only to be ripped apart. The soldiers were tossed around and pummeled to death by the unrelenting force. The high gravity force of Shinra Tensei massed their bodies into a human paste. Their remains splattered on the ground and smashed into the sides of the buildings.

The remaining survivors climbed out of the rubble and fired their rounds towards Pein. Asura Path rushed in to protect him. Bullets riddled holes in his cloak, but bounced harmlessly off his hard cybernetic shell. Then, his head opened up. Where his brain would have been, dozens of tiny missiles launched out of his skull and spread out in all directions. The missiles were tiny capsules, the size of human fingers, but when they stuck into the sides of GUN's giant tanks, the ensuing explosion reduced them into piles of scraps.

Animal Pein, the summoner in the ponytail slammed his hands on the ground, producing a cloudy mist. Out leapt a giant mad dog with blood red fur and foaming at the mouth. Watching its prey scatter for their lives, it and pounced on the army, pinning dozens under its massive paws. The dog popped as many bodies as it could fit into its mouth. It feasted on them all, snarling hungrily with dead limbs and ragged flesh hanging from its blood encrusted teeth.

Pein gave Konan a stern look. "Your turn."

Konan closed her eyes and sprouted wings from her back. Pure white angel wings made from sheets of paper and soared above the smoke and flames into the chilled night air. With a flap of her wings, a storm of paper rained down on the city.

At first, the soldiers found the flimsy papers that stuck to the tanks laughable. Until they saw the papers were soaked in acid that melted right through the metal. Those soldiers unlucky enough to find paper slapped on their skin screamed as it boiled and ate through flesh. They struggled to pry the sheets off, but they stuck to skin like glue. Blood and molten flesh slid off their bones. With their dying breaths, they reached up with their skeletal hands, screaming and begging for the pain to end.

Another Shinra Tensei was uttered from afar. Konan bowed her head in honor of God's words and watched as the force ground up the victims' bones and scattered them like dust in the wind.

Konan was known among the Pein worshippers as God's angel. Tonight, she served as his angel of death. Gazing down on her victims impassively, she heard the screams and saw them writhing in agony, chocking to death on poisonous fumes.

The putrid fumes of blood boiling with acid along with the peoples' dying screams reached all the way up to the top of the airship. Rouge couldn't believe what she was seeing. The sight made her feel sick. The biggest city on Mobius, the strong and shining Station Square was quickly being reduced to burning pit of destruction and death. Each minute, the man with the mysterious eyes was opening those people up to new levels of horror.

Robotnik was never this cruel. "We...we have to retreat," Rouge said, her voice shaking.

"I see what he's trying to do," the Commander said, his nose wrinkled to prevent inhaling the fumes. "Striking fear in us with horrifying terror attacks to demoralize us so that we never challenge him again."

"And it's working."

"That won't help," the Commander said. "It'll only get worse. If he does manage to take over the world, it'll be like this everyday on Mobius. Just more terror. We can retreat, but he'll just come and do the same thing at Central City. Then again and again. I'll have none of that! So help me God, I'm going down there to challenge that Akatsuki Leader myself!"

He didn't see that another cloaked ninja sprang out of the smoke above him.

"Commander! Look out!" Rouge shouted as she drew her gun.

The red headed ninja smacked Rouge aside. The gun flew from her hands, and before she could recover, a black blade slid out of his sleeve and stabbed her wing. Rouge let out a scream as blood poured from her wing and splashed into her back and into her face. Her vision ran red with blood. A swift kick to her stomach sent Rouge plunging off the side. She slipped into unconsciousness in midair and landed on the ground with a hard _snap. _

The Akatsuki nin looked over the edge to see the bat woman lying in a pile of flaming rubble, her eyes closed, her limbs bent and twisted in horrible unnatural ways, and blood seeping out of her mouth and wings. Satisfied, he turned towards the leader of this whole operation.

"It's overwhelming, isn't it?" the ninja said. He was a craggy faced older man with a husky voice. "Deva Path's power. It takes a deep knowledge and mastery of the elements to learn how to control the fundamental forces of creation like that. That's why Deva Path is the realm of God."

"Spare me," the Commander said, fearlessly raising his shining silver blade to meet the enemy's black sword. "And who are you supposed to be?"

"I am Pein. We are all Pein. This is the Naraka Path. It follows its own way of pain."

"Those eyes," the sword felt heavy and started shaking in the Commander's hand. "Now I know where I've seen those before. It's been so long, but those eyes could only be the ones of..."

"Do you understand now? Now that your city has been demolished, do you see what pain is?"

He was so mesmerized by the glare in Pein's eyes, that the Commander almost tripped off the edge of the ship and fell to his death.

"I knew it," the Commander said, breathless. "Now that I see them myself up close, there can be no doubt. Those could be none other than the eyes of...Uchiha Madara."

"How do you know that name?" Naraka asked, placing the tip of his sword against the Commander's neck. "Speak."

"I wish I could forget them," the Commander said in a pained whisper. "When I was just a kid, he was there. I remember them from my nightmares. I was terrified of those eyes. Like they would suck my soul away and send me straight to the gates of Hell."

Naraka Pein drew in close to the Commander's ear and whispered. "And you were right."

Naraka Pein gently placed his head atop the GUN Commander's head. A cold, enervating energy sapped away at his strength, reaching straight down into the depths of his soul. A creature rose up from the floor, wreathed in dark violet flames. The demon faced thing also possessed the Rinnegan eyes. Its mouth was wide enough to swallow a human whole. Behind that cavernous maw and flame tipped teeth lay the spinning vortex of dark energies that was the entrance to Hell.

"I have summoned before you the King of Hell," Naraka Pein said. "Answer me truthfully and you live. Don't and your soul will be devoured for all eternity."

"Guess I was right," the Commander said ruefully. "Hidden behind those eyes, in the midst of those circles, was the entrance to Hell."

"Give the order for your men to drop their weapons and to swear their allegiance to me." As Naraka Path spoke, a putrid, oozing tongue slithered out of the Hell King's mouth and wormed its way up the Commander's legs up to his torso. "You can all continue on serving as my army that will keep the peace."

That tongue, soaked in a foul ichor stained the Commander's spotless uniform. There was a cold, ghostly feel to it, like it wasn't all real. It seeped through his clothes, through his skin and bones, down to the core of his soul.

"Will you kneel?" asked Pein.

The Commander hardened his eyes and spat in the pierced man's face.

"The Hell I will."

"Then I have no choice but to send your soul to Hell, for an eternity of damnation and pain."

"Go ahead and do it," the Commander said wearily, tilting his head up away from Pein's eyes towards the reddening smoke filled sky. "I'm tired of living in this world full of freaks and monsters running amuck, abusing their godlike powers. I've spent my whole life trying my damn hardest to protect this world from aliens and chaos gods and demon, wrecking havoc on this world. All those years and I've got nothing to show for it. But I challenged those gods. Even if I am just a man."

He found the strength to lift his head up and look Pein right in the eye. His mismatched gold and blue eyes met the Rinnegan. "Maybe you're just a man, too."

"You don't really believe you're a god yourself," the Commander said. The slime drenched tongue slid up to his neck. "Sure you convinced them down there by blowing them all to hell, but this old man has seen it all before. Young punks that somehow get these godlike powers. It's all an act. A damn good one. But still just an act."

The King of Hell's tongue reached the Commander's Head. The tortured voices of the damned came calling to him from deep within the Abyss. He didn't care.

"Go ahead and try to pretend you're God," the Commander finally said with a dying whisper. "Judge those poor souls as if you were their creator if you must. Your kind always loses godhood eventually. And when that day comes, I'll see you in Hell."

The King of Hell forced its tongue down the Commander's throat. The last thing the Commander felt was something like a gust of wind blowing from deep inside him. There was a feeling of weightlessness, like being thrown suddenly into the cold vacuum of space. Then, his soul was sucked away. The GUN Commander's body, a dead, empty shell lay sprawled out on the ship's deck. His blue and gold eyes were like a pair of lifeless marbles.

"Defiant to the end," Pein said before kicking the empty soulless body off the edge and let it smash into the broken, jagged streets.

Konan released a storm of paper. Deva Pein, with Konan at her side stepped through the streets that were now piled with the dead and the dying.

"This pitiful planet, even with their superior weapons, are helpless against my Paths of Pein."

"The GUN Commander is dead," Deva Pein said as he stepped over the Commander's body. "The rest of them have sealed their fate."

Seeing their Commander dead and the vacant expression left on his face, the soldiers dropped their guns and started to run, as Pein knew they would. Asura Path was on them in moments, barring their escape, slicing men to shreds with every saw and bladed weapon he had hidden in his body. He butchered them all, doing so with a smile on his grotesque face.

One figure strode forth through the burning, corpse filled street towards Pein. A white haired young man who carried with him a giant sword. His chakra radiated a gleaming chill that kept the flames flickering at bay. They lapped and hissed at him as he walked by.

"Well, what have we here? You're Kisame's boss, huh? Nice work," he said approvingly as he looked around at all the carnage. "Figured you'd be a pretty tough if you managed to rope a big guy like Kisame until your little gang."

"Hozuki Suigetsu of the Mist," Pein said. "You have abandoned your service to Orochimaru and have been following us for some time, hunting down Kisame. What is your relationship to him?"

"You could say that I'm the guy that dropped him," Suigetsu said. "Now that he's out of the way, I'm gonna need a new challenge. Since I've already made myself an enemy of your group, I might as well see what the toughest guys in Akatsuki can do. You look like you're handy with a sword," he nodded hungrily at the black sword in Pein's lowered in Pein's hand. "Care to go a few rounds?"

"I'm not interested in wasting time with a wild animal."

"Huh? Say what?"

"You're just a empty brute with no worthy cause," Pein said. "you kill for fun, without purpose. Not fit to be on the battlefield where true shinobi battle for. Even the most violent members fight for something. But not you. You belong in a cage. Away from the sight of God."

Suigetsu's grin faded away, replaced by a frown. "Tch. You're more depressing to be around than Sasuke. Of course I got a purpose for joining this fight," he said as he extended his blade. "Drop that fox."

Pein's eyes narrowed as he saw the icy sword in Suigetsu's hand. "There's a spirit living in that sword. In that case..."

_"Suigetsu, this man has more blood on his hands than everybody in the Mist Village combined. Be careful," _the spirit of Haku whispered from within the sword.

"Ha! Now I'm really fired up, Thanks for telling me that."

Animal Path clapped his hands and one more red haired Rinnegan wielded leapt out of the cloud and to Suigetsu's shock, grasped the giant sword with his bare hand.

Pein number six.

"Who the Hell are you?" Suigetsu snarled at the newcomer's entrance.

This Pein clenched his hand on the frigid sword, allowing ice cold blood to slowly drip down the blade. With a sharp pull, Haku's ghost was forcefully ripped out of its vessel. The gleaming blade of ice dimmed and melted into a pool of water.

"NOOOO! The Hell did you just do?" Suigetsu snarled.

"If there truly is a spirit inhabiting your weapon, then the Human Path can draw it out and neutralize your sword's powers. He briefly saw the ghostly apparition of Haku, hanging from Human Path's hand before he vanished away.

_"Forgive me, Suigetsu. I was not strong enough to withstand his attack. Tell Tails that...I'm sorry." _

"Asshole!" Suigetsu shook his empty hands. "I have to get a new sword now!"

"The fate of your weapon will be the least of your worries," Deva Pein said. His hand was held right in front Suigetsu's face.

The power of Shinra Tensei fell upon Suigetsu. Pein popped Suigetsu like an exploding water watery remains rained everywhere. A cloud of steam rose up from the street with a hiss. Pein lifted up Suigetsu's liquid remains into an empty glass bottle.

"This may be useful to us later," Pein said and turned to his angel hovering above. "Konan. This just shows that the other members failed to kill the kitsune's friends. Find them. Those time travelers, the hedgehog musicians, the pirate girl, the Hyuuga girl. Even the little rabbit girl. Snuff them all out."

"Yes," Konan said. "What will you do now?"

"I am going to burn this entire city down to a pile of ashes."

Asura Path grinned. Its Rinnegan eyes glowed green and its body changed. It grew. It towered over the Station Square skyline as a Kaijuu sized killer robot. Charging up with the energies of the Master Emerald, it fired a deadly beam of light that incinerated everything in its path. Buildings collapsed and crumbled to dust, engulfed in green flames. The giant mech laughed an ugly robotic laugh is it heard the screams and breathed in the smoke and flames of the dying city.

* * *

Deidara cackled manically as he launched clay bombs from his satchel, trying to blast Itachi out of the air. ripped the mechanical scope off his left eye and glared hard at Itachi. He dared to look straight at Itachi. Ever since their last battle where Itachi handed him a humiliating defeat, Deidara spent every day training his eye to overcome genjutsus. He wes confident that the fated had come where he would see past the Sharingan's illusions

This wasn't the final battle he had expected, though. Itachi was running.

"Where are you going, Itachi? Come and fight me!"

Itachi never looked back. He kept on running.

"That Mangekyou Sharingan must takes some toll out of you, un. Abusing all those techniques like that. So even the unstoppable Uchiha genius has his limits. You can't have much chakra left."

"You talk too much, Deidara," Itachi said without looking back.

"And you don't talk enough. I gotta know before I kill you. Why did you betray us?"

"You wouldn't be able to comprehend the depths behind my motives, but I'll leave you with this. I just released seven very destructive demons to run freely across this planet. I created a greater work of art than you ever will."

Deidara laughed. "You an artist?" Deidara opened up his cloak and reached a hand into his giant chest mouth. Out of his mouth, he pulled out another weapon. A white longbow, made out of clay. Then he pulled an arrow from his mouth.

Deidara nocked the arrow into his bow and pulled back. "I think you can guess what happens if one of these arrows gets near you."

He let the arrow fly. Itachi dodged it in time, watching the arrow whiz by his hair. It kept on sailing through the city until it landed in the ocean.

A vast explosion erupted from the waters. He didn't let it register on his face, but Itachi was impressed. If that hit him unprepared, it would have killed him instantly.

"There's a lot more where that came from. Next time, I won't miss, un."

Deidara prepared another explosive arrow and as he pulled the string back and was about to fire, The winds picked up. A sandstorm blew in that. Locked sky, obscuring Deidara's vision. All he could see of Itachi was a faint black blur.

Deidara cursed his bad luck. "Damn! What rotten timing! If this keeps up, Itachi might escape. I have to–"

Amidst the howling winds, Deidara heard faint laughter. A small chuckle, at first. But soon, it picked up and the winds were filled with shrieking madness.

"That voice. I know I've heard it before..."

**"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Remember me, Deidara-chan?" **yelled out a high pitched voice. The sandstorm grew a pair of alien green eyes, then the face of a demon raccoon materialized in the air.

"You!" Deidara shouted in horror. "No! Not you!"

**"Yeah. It's me!" **emerald eyes shone wickedly** "You shoved a bomb up my ass and tried to kill my host. Way back in Suna! I felt that, you jackass!"**

"Shukaku! Sabaku no Gaara's demon!" Deidara snarled.

**"Payback** **time," **Shukakau's clawed arm and snatched Deidara off his bird. He snapped the bow in two and flailed Deidara into the air. The sand tightened around his arm.

"No! No! Not my arm, you bastard! Not fucking again!"

**"Oh, yes again! Yes! YES! FUCKING YES!" **the demon howled like a maniac, reveling in his crazed bloodlust.

Shukakau's eyes glowed a sickly green. With a drunken laugh, Shukaku pulled. Deidara's arm popped as it was torn off his shoulder. His scream was silenced by the raging sand filled winds that pelted his skin and stung his eyes. Blood sprayed out his shoulder and mixed in with the swirling sands.

Shukakau opened his mouth wide and happily drank the blood that drizzled over his face. **"Damn! That felt good!"** He lashed out with his one massive tail, knocking Deidara off his clay bird and sent him crashing into the ocean.

After his laughing fit, the Shukaku frowned, looking bored. **"Eh, that was over too quick.** **I shoulda slowly peeled off his eyes. Or made him swallow his own liver. Ah, well. Let's see what kind of fun I can have in this new universe."**

Deidara lost his arm for a yet another time. He lost count of how many times this happened.

"Never again," Deidara sputtered, coughing out a mouthful of sea water. "I'll kill that demon. When I'm through with him, he'll be begging to crawl back into that statue. My next bomb will-"

The once calm waters been shifting, making waves. Deidara sensed a shadow of dark waters beneath him. Something alive rising up from the depths. Something big. Demonic. Angry.

"Oh, shit! Not another one!"

A terrible dark shadow loomed above Deidara. A grey and purple scaled crustacean with a three coral encrusted tails and covered in a rocky spiked shells glared at him with a single glowing red eye. The snapping of its claws and the alien clicking noises form its mouth made Deidara cringe.

Isobu, the three tailed monster of the sea had resurfaced. Another of the bijuu he captured. All his work for Akatsuki had come back to haunt him.

"I never should have joined this clusterfuck of an organization..." Deidara muttered as he swam away for his life. With a ravenous hiss, Isobu snared Deidara in one of his tentacles and pulled him under the churning waves.

"Hn. Farewell, Deidara," Itachi said. And then, a flock of black crows flew across the red sky. Itachi vanished amidst the black swarm.

* * *

Cream twirled her ears with all her strength to push her way through the biting sandstorm that enveloped the city's skyline. Through her Byakagun, Hinata saw rapid heartbeat of the young rabbit. Cream sounded sacred. _"I am too,"_ Hinata thought. _"I have no idea what's going on."_

"I can't see anything with all this sand! Can you see anything, Hinata?"

"Yes. Just barely." Even with her Byakagun, Hinata could barely see more than a few meters in front of her Not with the sky saturated with demonic chakra, making he eagle eye gaze of her eyes like watching snow falling on an old screen. Her Byakagun picked up some heavy chakra activity on the coast and down in the center of the city, but she never felt a chakra like that before in her life. It was like a mixture of all five elemental nature's colliding into each other at their most intense. Tails' chakra was there in the middle of it all, but she could hardly feel it.

"I can't fly anymore" Cream said, panting. "I need a safe landing."

"It's all right, Cream. There's a rooftop just twenty meters below us" Hinata pointed down. "You can drop us there."

When the rooftop came into view, Cream set Hinata down, then she herself plopped straight onto the ground, exhausted.

"We should be safe up here," Hinata said. "Thank you, Cream. We never would have made it out of that explosion alive if you weren't there."

Cream slumped down against the corner with Cheese next to her, gasping for air. "It was nothing...I was glad I was able to help. I just hope Tails will be all right. Can you see him?"

"Yes. I see him," Hinata said, scanning over the rooftop's edge. "But six Akatsuki men have him."

Cream gulped. "Oh, no! Six?"

"Six with the strongest chakra signatures I've ever seen," Hinata said. "United by a powerful dojutsu."

Cream, who just seconds ago was ready to pass out, now jumped to her feet. Her flapping ears were going nuts. "We have to get down there. We can still save him. Can't we?"

"I-I think there's still time," Hinata said, her voice unsteady, "but wait. Someone's coming."

Hinata spotted a black dot flying through the sky, coming towards them. Upon closer examination, Hinata spotted a woman on angel wings gliding through the sand swept winds with ease. She stopped to hover above them. Loose papers detached from her wings and fashioned themselves into a sword in her hand.

"My name is Konan," said the icy blue haired woman. "My Lord Pein sent me here to kill you both. He knew you would come."

"Get behind me, Cream," Hinata said, blocking the way to Cream with her arm while keeping her eyes focused on the Akatsuki woman. The stinging grains of sand pelted into her eyes. She was dying to shut off her Byakagun and close her eyes, but she dared not take her eyes off Konan for even a second. Just blinking could cost her her life. Those seemingly harmless papers were saturated with deadly chakra.

"It's nice to finally see a fellow konoichi here," Konan said. "Still, it was stupid for you to come here and get in our way. It's only fitting that you die by my hand."

"Nobody else needs to die tonight," Hinata said calmly but firmly. "We just want to help Tails-kun."

"See all this sand that blots the sky? Feel all that demonic chakra that scorches the air? Your kitsune demon friend let those demons loose and caused all this chaos. And you want to protect him?"

"That's a lie!" Cream rushed in front of Hinata armed with a kunai. Cheese followed his master with his own made for chao sized kunai. "Tails didn't do anything wrong. None of that would happen if you didn't try to capture him!"

"Cream, I'll handle this alone," Hinata said. "You go get Tails and fly him out of here. He's back at the arena. Six blocks down. Can you do that?"

Cream shot off to the roof's edge.A wave of courage replaced the fear in the heart. "Yeah. We can do this. Right, Cheese?"

"Chao! Chao!"

Hinata had to smile as she watched Cream twirled her ears and flew off the rooftop. She was really going down there to free Tails from Pein's grip. Without any fear at all. The little rabbit girl had guts.

"You just sent that girl to her death," Konan said. "Pein will never give up the kitsune so easily."

"Neither will we." Hinata's signature blue chakra started to flow and hum along her fingertips.

Konana twirled her paper made sword around, getting a good feel for it. It was lighter than any sword, but sharper and harder than the finest katana.

"You seem like a nice, quiet girl. I won't get any pleasure out of killing you. This is simply for the sake of Pein's quest for peace. I believe in that dream, Hyuuga. Maybe you'll live just long enough to see it."

Hinata didn't move form her stance as Konan moved in to strike. She took in a deep breath and let the chakra gather around her. Strands of blue light rose form her fingers and up flowed up her arms like a gentle river traveling upstream. She twitched her fingers and a rumbling growl emerged. Her chakra formed teeth ands eyes around her hands. A living shield of chakra sprouted to life in front of Hinata, flowing like lion's mane. Two ghostly lion faces came to fight with her.

**"Juho Soshiken," (Gentle Palm Twin Lion Fists) **Hinata spoke the name of her jutsu with gentle airy whisper, but she struck Konan without mercy.

A ferocious lion's roar erupted from the rooftop and echoed across the sky. Konan's paper sword was torn to shreds.

"It seems I'll need more paper to get past your Jyuuken chakra," Konan said as hundreds of sheets of paper fluttered from beneath her cloak. Something was different this time and Hinata noticed it immediately. They were red. This time, the paper was soaked in blood. With a murderous smirk, Konan reshaped them all into tiny shuriken blades.

**"Zan: Hyakuretzu Oukazan: (Paper Killing Technique: Hundred Raging Cherry Blossoms Strike)**

Konan gathered together a thousand thin sheets of paper, soaked in the blood of her victims. She launched them at Hinata all at once. A hundred razor sharp papers like cherry blossoms slashed into her flesh. With her hands held up to her face, she pressed on, ignoring the torn clothing and deep gashes in her skin, the slicing of paper blade cutting veins and scraping bone. Hinata ignored all and summoned all her chakra into her hands.

**"Hake Kuihekisho!" (Eight Triagrams Vacuum Wall Palm.)**

A burst of intense blue light flashed from Hinata's hand, followed by a dense blast of chakra that dispersed the paper petals and swept Konan off her feet.

**"**I can't believe you're still alive," Konan said, dusting off her cloak and watching Hinata lurch to her feet, blood dripping freely down all over her body, "let alone still standing after that attack. Is this the result of that will you Konoha people are known for? What was it called?"

"The Will of Fire!" Hinata shouted, then grunted and clutched her chest. A suffocating feeling took brought her to her knees. "It's not a Leaf thing. The people of Mobius its heroes have it too. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Cream, Amy, even Shadow has it. Didn't you have something like that in Amegakure?"

"You can't imagine the pain we faced in Amegakure," Konan said. "We had a sensei from Konoha, one of their greatest, and even he couldn't prepare us for the horrors that soon came. There's no Will of Fire that can survive under that rain. There were moments where each rain drop hurt like icy knives cutting through our flesh."

'I'm sorry. It must have been hard. Maybe if our Hokage knew, we could've-"

"The Hokage is a useless title," Konan spat. "We have a god that will be a savior to the world. I follow Pein's will and I believe in his dream for peace," Konan said. She summoned an endless paper storm. "You can't create peace with something as unrealistic as this Will of Fire. Now die and know discover true peace."

"_This is the end," _Hinata thought as Konan unleashed another volley of paper knives, drenched in flesh eating acid. _"Now I'll be skewered alive and melted down at the same time." _As Hinata waited for death, she thought of Cream succeeding, of Tails being freed. Of them getting together to stop Pein end ending Akatsuki. She smiled thinking of them, of Naruto-kun.

Then, everything became fire.

None of Konan's razor sharp paper knives could touch Hinata. They burst into flame before they could reach her. Tiny cinders flicked past her skin while a dark haze of fiery chakra descended.

Konan looked up to see the source of the fire storm.

A fire demon flew straight towards her. One of the escaped bijuu. A feral cat with two tails wreathed in shadowy flames. It headed straight for Konan, leaving a comet's tail of demonic flames in its wake.

Hinata knew exactly what the beast was doing when it opened its mouth and a dense flaming sphere gathered in between its jaws.

"Another demon," Konan said. "Möbius truly has become a land of demons."

The demon roared and spat out the fireball. With nowhere to run, Hinata dug her feet into the ground in a balanced ready stance, one foot in yin, one in yang, and waited as the fireball comet came screaming down on the rooftop.

**"Kaiten!" (Divine Whirl)**

Hinata whirled around in her dance, creating a blue dome of chakra. The fiery explosion slammed into it and danced like mad when blown away by the Jyuuken chakra.

Burning air filled her lungs as Hinata gasped for air and collapsed onto a pile of smoking debris and ash. The fireball's explosion wiped the rooftop clean. She could still hear the demon roaring off in the distance somewhere, but at least where Hinata was, things were deathly quiet.

Konan was nowhere to be seen. No trace of her body was left. No chakra signature. Nothing left except the black tatters from her cloak.

* * *

It was like they never left.

Silver and Blaze travelled down the time stream thousands of years into the past, escaping a war torn era plagued by demons and endless bloodshed. Their dream that they fought for was to set right what went wrong. But now, as they teleported into the city, it was like everything right back where they started.

This was Crisis City all over again. Demons flying through the sky. A city engulfed in flames, sinking into chaos. Great pillars of fire and thick plumes of smoke rose into the darkening sky as a monstrous robot rampaged across town, raining emerald death upon the world.

The searing heat that wavered through the air sapped what little strength Silver had left in him, and he could barely stand, or even keep his eyes open. That brutal battle with the tentacle wielding ninja had taken its toll on him. The blood that soaked through his fur felt hot and sticky. The smoke and ashes and the blood that soaked through his fur turned his fur into a gray mess. The gaping wound in his chest reminded him of his narrow brush with death.

"I was too careless...unghn." Silver almost toppled to the ground before Blaze caught him.

Blaze helped him steady his feet on the ground. "Don't say that. We would've all been dead if you didn't stop Kakuzu. You fought valiantly like a true warrior."

"It wasn't enough. It took everything I had to go up against that monster, but I don't know if I could go any further," Silver coughed, spitting up blood. "I'm dying, Blaze," he said in a hoarse voice.

"No! No, you're not," Blaze said with a reassuring smile. "We'll get you help. You're going to live through this and see victory. We'll prevent the Crisis and return back to a bright and shining future. I promise."

"And you'll be queen," Silver added, managing his own small grin.

"I'll still need you to serve by my side," Blaze said. "So that the skies will be free of demons once again. Promise me you'll be there when we restore our kingdom once again."

Silver closed his eyes, feeling the Princess' words enter his heart, driving away the pain in his chest. Her could see those clear blue skies already."You have my word, your Highness."

"Silver, I don't see Marine anywhere. What happened to her?"

"I don't know. I'm sorry. I couldn't concentrate on my teleportation properly," It pained him to tell the princess of his failures. "She let go of my hand...must've fallen into the ocean."

Blaze showed him an encouraging smile. "She'll be all right. Maybe it's safer in the ocean. I sense something big coming this way."

"Is it Akatsuki?" Silver asked. He too felt an eerie presence lurking behind the shrouds of sand. "I can barely see through all this sand, this haze. What the hell happened here?"

"A demon. This is the power of a fire demon, burning with the essence of eternal flame. Hot as the sun itself. It's coming for me, but I'm not sure why."

"If it wants to fight, I won't let you face this creature alone," Silver insisted.

"Here it comes," Blaze stood still and watched as a dark foreboding shadow came closer. "Strange. There's something so familiar about this presence...like it knows me."

A giant cat demon with two tails revealed itself before them, completely covered with midnight blue flames that danced mesmerisingly around her body. Not raging crackling like a wildfire, but ebbing and flowing in harmony like an endless ocean of fire. A pair of golden yellow eyes, like two miniature suns stared intently at the hedgehog and the cat.

"Those flames...they're so hot," Blaze said, wiping sweat from her brow.

Silver had never seen her sweat before. He never saw the regal princess look this faint before. "Fire burns through your blood. I thought you never get hot."

"I don't. Unless-"

**"This is not normal fire," **the demon cat spoke.

"Who are you?" Blaze asked, looking up into the cat's eyes, unable to take her eyes off this fire spirit.

**"Princess Blaze the Cat, I am Matatabi, the flaming two-tailed demon cat." **Her voice was powerful but had an air of nobility.** "I have not come to harm you, but to offer you a choice."**

"A choice? W hat kind of choice?"

**"Join me and become my Jinchuuriki. I seek a new host who can contain my power."**

Blaze felt a need to bow, or at least kneel before the giant cat. "Why would you want to seal your spirit into the body of a lowly mortal such as I?"

**"A bijuu's power is stronger if it is bound to the right host" **said the demon cat.** "I sense a kindred spirit in you. You are a cat and a master of the art of fire. You will make a worthy host to contain my flames. I offer you now the chance to harness a type of flame like nothing you ever experienced."**

"You are no mere demon," Blaze said. "She is a true master of fire, I thought I understood the secret of fire. I was wrong. So very wrong."

**"Be warned. My flames are not easily controlled. Your soul will share in the essence of chaos and demonkind. And in the end, our bond can only be undone in death. It will be difficult, but there's no one I can see on this planet who is more up to the task than you."**

Silver pulled her arm, moving her away from the demon's face. "Blaze, tell me you're not seriously considering this, are you? To seal a demon inside you? Do you know what this means? You'll be come just like-"

"Just like the Kyuubi," Blaze finished his sentence. "The same creature that we came here to kill. Yes. I know. But he wasn't what we thought he was. Perhaps our relationship with the demon world isn't as simple as we thought."

**"You have no idea, Princess," **Matatabi smiled, baring her flame licked fangs. **You merited the ability to travel thousands of years through the time stream. I am part of a power that has existed since the dawn of time. The thousands of worlds I've seen, the millions of beings out there. There are so many secrets and mysteries waiting to be uncovered. Join with me and you will find untold power. And the promise of a new future."**

Blaze turned away from Silver and stepped closer the demon. "I accept. I will become your new Jinchuuriki host."

"Blaze, wait! You don't know what you're getting yourself into!" Silver shouted.

"No. I don't," Blaze said firmly. "But neither did we know what we'd be getting into when we travelled to the past. Maybe this is what the future needs. Maybe this is what _I _need. Maybe this is why we came here."

**"I'll prepare the sealing ritual now. Last chance to back out, Princess."**

Blaze did not flinch as the demon cat reached out to her with its claw extended. "I swore that I would do whatever it takes to save my kingdom and end the scourge of demons. I'd gladly give up my life, my very soul. Even if it means becoming a demon myself."

**"Then ignite your flames. Our fires will now merge and join together as one."**

"Just one thing first," Blaze said forcefully, causing the demon cat to retract her claw. "I will only use your demon powers to do good. Not to feed some savage demonic hunger for death and destruction. I won't allow your flames to harm any innocents."

Matatabi laughed. **"As you wish, Princess."**

"Why are you laughing like that?"

**"I was just thinking of my old host. Yugito was a good woman. She's be honored to have you as her successor."**

Blaze turned to Silver. "I don't know what will happen to me now, Silver...if something goes wrong here, if I lose control...then kill me."

"Yes, your Highness."

With one flaming claw, Matatabi drew a spiraling circle of flames on Blaze's stomach. Their eyes met and Blaze's eyes flared with the bijuu's demonic chakra. Blaze screamed as her entire body was engulfed in hell fire. The giant two tailed cat turned into a whirling tornado of dark fire that rushed itself into Blaze's chest. Blaze yowled in pain, but her screams were nearly drowned out by the roaring flames that were sucked into her stomach. Smoke filled her lungs. Her blood boiled. Her flesh was on the verge of melting clean off her bones.

Silver looked on it in shock at the princess writhing in pain, the hellish flames consuming her. He didn't know what to do. Should he grab Blaze? Run away? Kill her?

"B-Blaze...?"

"It's all right," Blaze shouted. A pillar of fire erupted from her like a volcano and shot up into the sky. "I can do this. I can control it. I COMMAND ALL FIRE!"

Blaze stood up slowly as the flames died down. A strange smile crossed her face as she looked at her hands and dark sapphire flames danced around her fur and the demon cat's voice echoed in her head.

**"You are now Princess Blaze**," declared Matatabi in her head, "**Jinchuuriki of the Two-Tailed Cat." **

Blaze was back on her feet, black wisps of smoke came from her body. Her new aura of demonic energy was an inferno of blue and black flames. The raging fires quieted down and bent themselves to her will. There was a powerful gleam in her eyes, the hint of users power that infused her being.

Blaze cupped her hands around Silver. The fires were cool to the touch.

"Silver. I know it must might be difficult to see me like this," she said. "Please trust me. It is me. I feel stronger than ever. I'm ready to fight against Pein. Teleport yourself to a hospital and get help. I can do this alone."

"Yes. Your Highness." Silver bowed and teleported away in a flash of green light.

Now alone, the newly created Blaze the Demon Cat looked to the city's sky line where the titan sized Pein rampaged through the city. A grotesque smile crossed the creature's face before he opened is mouth to fire its energy beam.

"That mechanical behemoth must be destroyed."

**"And now he can be," **Matatabi assured her.

Blaze rocketed upwards to face the giant rampaging Asura Path. It was easy to get his attention. He sensed the overwhelming spike of chakra that broiled everything near her. It could only come from the power of a bijuu. He turned around and met the cat, floating in front of him, shrouded by a sea of flames.

"I knew that sooner or later your kind would return to face me, Nibii no Bakeneko," Asura Pein's voice boomed. "You must be furious. Was it so painful to be ripped out of your host body and sealed into the statue of the Outer Path?"

**"Your men killed Yugito. The months I spent trapped in the world of the Outer Path were nothing compared to the pain of losing my comrade. You murdered her."**

"I never expected the bijuu would seek out new hosts so soon," Asura Path said, showing his gigantic metal teeth. "Now I will have to kill your new host." He raised his monstrous hand to swat her away. Blaze jetted to the side so fast, the giant robots moved like a glacier. Blaze never imagined she could move at such speed.

**"Blaze. Pein has grown stronger than ever. He won't hold back. I wish there was time to help you train and get used to your newfound powers, but we can't hold back against this killer. Let us create a Tailed Beast Bomb."**

"How do I do that?"

**"It's risky to use one so soon, but we can do it. Relax and gather all the flames in your body. I will add my fire to your own. We will combine our energies, yin and yang, and demonstrate a power like none other on Mobius." **

Asura Pein saw his opening and swiped his saw blades through the fire that shielded her and sliced her across her midsection. Blood stained her royal purple garments, dripping downwards.

"That...was a mistake," Blaze hissed through gritted teeth.

The blood that dripped from her wounds burst into flames and floated in front of her face small red globules. Each droplet, saturated with chakra gathered around Blaze's mouth and opened wide. Her insides were brimming with a dark energy. The demon cat's flames crept out of her hosts mouth and mixed together with her blood. Blue and orange flames merged together and a dense of ball of fire was formed.

Pein recognized the technique that was forming. A desperate attack done by all bijuu.

"The Bijuu Dama..."

The darkest, hottest fires in existence erupted through Blaze's fur, turning it pitch black.

Asura faced the flaming cat with an ugly smirk. It unleashed a barrage of missiles at her. All of them evaporated into harmless vapor when they neared her burning chakra aura. With a titanic roar, he opened his mouth wide and fired a high intensity blast of brilliant, green light.

**"Do it now, Blaze!"** Matatabi shouted in her head as Pein's attack surged ahead.

Blaze hurled her giant fireball from her mouth. It collided with Pein's energy beam in center of the sky. Asura Path roared as as Blaze's fire bomb pushed agains the emerald force and threw its energy beam back in Asura Path's face face. There was a guttural chocking sound coming for his throat when he swallowed the super hot, dense mass of energy.

The giant mech lit up like a dying video game boss, with white hot rays of light emanating from every crack and pore in its body. Asura Path erupted like a supernova, taking a good chunk of the city away with it. Blaze was almost blown away herself, but her new demon power shielded her and helped her ride the waves of the explosion. When the shockwaves died down and the smoke cleared away letting the city still to a dead silence. The remains of Asura Path's body, all blasted away into tiny shards, and rained down on the city.

* * *

Blaze looked around for the Master Emerald, but the power of the blast pulverized the Emerald into a fine dust. It was everywhere now, gently falling from the sky like sparkling green snow. Each tiny flake, as small as a grain of sand, glimmered with light.

Blaze clutched her stomach in pain. The wound had already healed, but the chakra storm boiling inside her was too much to take. "This chakra is so overwhelming. How do I shut down?"

**"We can't shut down yet, Princess," **said the demon cat within. **"You did beautifully in destroying one of the paths of Pein, but there are still five more left."**

Blaze moaned in pain. "It feels like my insides are frying. I don't think I can take much more of this."

**"Take a deep breath, Princess," **Matatabi said in a gentle, caring tone that Blaze never thought would come from a demon.** "The Bijuu Dama takes its toll on even experienced Jinchuuriki. Keep yourself centered. Let your chakra coils accept the fires coursing through them. Let the flames wash over you like a waterfall. Feel its inner coolness. Don't focus on the destruction. Let the fire be a healing light for you in the midst of all this darkness. Just a little bit longer. Let's at least do enough to pay our debt to Kurama and his young host."**

"Is the Kyuubi a friend of yours?"

Matatabi chuckled. **"Not really. Kurama is a mean, arrogant, boorish creature who thinks he's stronger than every demon just because he has more tails. And he's a pervert. But if not for him and his host, we wouldn't be free. For that, we owe them. If we can free them from Pein's grasp, maybe that kitsune demon will learn to appreciate the rest of us, if only a little bit."**

"So what do we do now?"

**"Pein will be on his guard now. Our next battle will be even harder. We go for the fat Pein. The one known as the Preta Path. He can absorb any energy based attack."**

"Even our demon chakra? Then what's the point?"

**"He'll have to drop the kitsune to focus on absorbing our energy. That will give us an opening while someone grabs the kitsune." **

"We'll need someone to help us."Blaze sniffed the air. She picked up the scent of a rabbit. Sure enough there was a young rabbit hovering above with her chao.

**"Usagi child. Come here. Don't be afraid."**

Cream floated over to Princess Blaze. Her royal purple vestments and her white fur was now wreathed in a halo of dark blue fire. It was like the night became alive and Blaze wore it as her royal cloak.

"Princess Blaze. Is that really you?"

"Yes, Cream. I look a little different now. I'm not sure myself what I've become, but it is me. Right now, we need your help. Tails needs your help."

**"You want to help your friend, don't you?" **Matatabi's voice rumbled from within Blaze's throat.

Cream nodded her head vigorously. "Yes. I'll do anything to help Tails."

"See that man over there who holds the kitsune captive?" Blaze pointed to the fat Pein. "He is preoccupied with absorbing Tails' demon chakra. We will cause a distraction to separate him from Tails. It will be too risky for him to hold onto Tails when I attack him head on with fire and physical attacks. When he drops Tails, you grab him and fly away. Understood?"

"Yeah!" Cream beamed with a happy smile. "Let's go save Tails! Ready, Cheese?"

"Chao!" Cheese buzzed around her, pumping himself up.

"What does that weakling rabbit girl think she's doing?" Preta Pein saw the little rabbit hurtling towards him on the attack. "Does she really expect to-"

"PEIN!" Blaze called out. A halo of flame flared up around her. Preta Pein swerved around to see the cat. "For the sake of the future, in the name of the jinchuuriki you've slain and the bijuu you captured, you will pay!"

"Hmm. So you destroyed Asura Path. You won't be enjoying that new Jinchuuriki state for long. Prepare yourself for a world of pain."

"Take your pain and burn!"

Jets of fiery chakra exploded out of Blaze's hands. Searing flames came pouring out her eyes, her nose, and mouth. Her body was engulfed with light and energy, blazing like the heart of a star. Everything around her in a twenty foot radius heated up to a million degrees and melted into slag. A massive tidal wave of fire exploded outward and rushed towards Preta Pein. He tossed Tails high into the air, out of range of the fire blast. With both hands creating a blue chakra barrier, Preta Path reached right into the massive conflagration. He stood within the fire storm untouched. The Preta Path, god of the Hungry Ghosts, drank the fires and siphoned them all into his body.

Blaze kept pouring it on, unleashing hell on the Akatsuki Leader._"He's absorbing all of my fire chakra. Just as I thought. It's all yours now, Cream."_

High above the raging fire storm, Tails was still unconscious and was about to fall back towards the earth. Cream darted towards Tails and caught him in her arms.

"Gotcha, Tails!"

**"Bansho Tennin!"**

The other Pein, the one everyone called Leader of Akatsuki, snatched Cream and Tails out of the air with his telekinesis, pulling them towards his outstretched arm.

"Foolish rabbit. Did you think that our eyes would be off him for even a second that you could so easily save him?"

"Let. Him. Go!" Cream cried and tried to pull Tails away, but there was no way she could compete against the inescapable pull of Pein's Heavenly Attraction. Soon, everything in the vicinity was pulled into his vacuum. A street lamppost was plucked from the ground and smacked Cream in the back of the head. Tails slipped from her fingers as she fell onto the street, while Tails was sent flying into the vortex in a spiral of flame, dust, and smoke, heading straight for Pein's open palm.

"Taaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiils!" Cream cried. She shut her eyes, afraid to look at what horrifying thing Pein would do to him.

Just as Tails was about to meet Pein's hand, his eyes flashed open. He plucked a shard of broken glass from the air. In an orange blur of speed, Tails sliced through Pein's wrist. His severed hand flung away from his wrist. Gushing streams of blood geysered from a ruptured artery and splashed into Tails' face.

With Deva Pein's technique dispelled, everything caught in the pull of his gravity powers, all the rocks and debris came crashing to the ground in a huge cloud of dust. Tails stepped out of the cloud, now fully conscious. With his blood stained broken glass acting as a makeshift kunai, he got into his battle stance.

"Playing possum," Deva Pein said. "Most impressive."His face suggested that he wasn't at all impressed.

"Tails!" Cream ran over to Tails. She rushed into him and hugged him, delighted to see him awake and his tails wagging freely. "Tails! Are you all right?"

"Hi, Cream." He looked really happy to see her, too. "Yeah. I'm fine. Thanks for coming."

"You have no chakra left," Pein said, coming closer. "I will show you how weak you truly are by killing your rabbit friend right before your eyes while you will helplessly look on."

Pein gestured and soon, all the five Peins were there, surrounding him in a circle. Five pairs of rippling eyes stared at the fox and the rabbit with pure killing intent.

"Wh-what we do now, Tails?" Cream hid behind him.

"Where's that Chao gun I gave you?"

"I lost it in the fight with Deidara when the airship exploded."

"No worries," Tails said. "I'll make you a new one when we get out of this."

"How are we going to do that?"

"I'm not really sure," Tails said, frowning. "We still got Blaze to help us, don't we? Doesn't she have all that crazy demon firepower."

"I'm afraid not," Pein said.

Pein motioned again and another Pein leapt to the fray, riding on the head of a giant polar bear. A frigid arctic mist hissed out of his mouth, but worse was that Blaze was there, bloodied and unconscious, trapped between his icy bloodstained teeth.

"Blaze?"

"He beat Princess Blaze?" Cream shivered with terror at the sight of beautiful Princess Blaze captured in the jaws of the ice beast. "Tails, he's too strong."

"I am the master of all the elements. It was stupid of her to think her fire would have any effect on me."

The giant polar bear dumped Blaze's body on the ground in front of Tails' feet. Blaze managed a crying gasp. Blood leaked out of the gashes in her torso onto his sneakers.

"T-Tails...," Blaze opened her eyes and said in a chocked whisper. "Don't let him capture you again."

"Becoming the Jinchuuriki of the Two-Tailed Cat didn't help her," Pein said. "She was defeated easily, just like the last time we captured her. Your demon brethren can't save you. Freeing the bijuu accomplished nothing. I'll seal them all away once again soon enough. The world will worship me for ending the demon scourge that you brought to this world."

"SHUT UP!" Cream shouted as she ran up and stared hard into Pein's eye. "You're the bad guy, Pein. Tails will beat you. You haven't captured him yet and you never ever will!"

"She dies next," Pein said simply. He gestured with a finger and the elder craggy faced Pein snatched Cream in his hand.

Tails spun around when she screamed. "Cream! What are you gonna do to her? Which path is this one supposed to be?"

"The Path to Hell," Pein answered.

The King of Hell opened its yawning mouth and formed a powerful vacuum. It sucked in the shards of Asura Path's body. When the trash pile of broken metal parts gathered in, the King of Hell chomped down and started to chew.

When it opened its mouth again, a brand new Asura Path stepped out of the Hell King's mouth.

"As you can see, any damage dealt to the Six Paths of Pain is meaningless," Pein said as he reached his arm into the King's mouth. He drew it back out of Hell's gate with his hand reattached. "We will always come back."

"Can't you just let Cream go?" Tails asked. "Haven't you killed enough."

"The King of Hell seeks out lies and devours them. If she speaks the truth or obeys my command, she lives."

Tails let out a slight chuckle. "It's ok, don't have to be afraid of that. You probably never told a single lie in your whole life."

"Please, Tails. Just forget me. Fly away."

"Fly?" Heh. I've been hearing that a lot lately." Tails shook his head. Not this time. If I don't put an end to this now, he'll never stop."

"Tails!" Cream begged with tears in her eyes. "Don't-"

"It's why I'm here." Tails said softly.

"You must feel pretty stupid waving a broken piece of glass at six god level shinobi when you have no chakra," Pein said.

"I know," Tails said, "but that doesn't mean I'm useless," he took out a small remote control from his glove.

"Some invention of yours?" Pein asked.

"You're not the only guy who can summon things," Tails said, pressing the button.

For a few seconds, they waited and nothing happened

"Aaaany minute now..." Tails tapped his foot impatiently the way Sonic always did. He looked around at the circle of six Peins, feeling really stupid that he was holding a broken piece of glass and zero chakra. _"Come on. Get over here, you dumb thing."_

After a few agonizing seconds, a faint buzzing filled the air.

"He's on his way," Tails sighed with relief.

A tiny robot dog that resembled a mechanical Tails flew down by Tails' side.

Tails giggled when the robot pup licked. "Hi, T-Pup. I wish I could play with ya now, but first we got a problem."

T-Pup flew up into the face of Deva Pein and growled.

"Yap! Yap! Yap!" T-Pup barked at the Akatsuki Leader as he zipped around him with twirling helicopter blades.

Without looking, Pein swatted the small robot dog away like an annoying fly. The little robot dog yipped as he came crashing into the street.

"Was that it?" Pein asked, getting impatient. "That was your summon?"

"Huh?" Tails looked at him confused. "No way! T-Pup just happened to show up first, cuz he's the faster than the other one."

"The other one?"

The earth started to shake. Something with huge amounts of energy was closing in fast. All six paths of Pein looked to the sky. A comet streaked across the night sky with a blazing tail of fire, lightning, and ice. It was getting bigger, coming towards them. Whatever it was, it was heading towards them within that ball of fire. And it was big.

"That would be my summon," Tails said, grinning.

The comet landed on top of Pein's polar bear, smashing it into the ground, crushing the giant bear's flesh and bones to a mushy pulp that baked on the sides of the newly formed crater. From the bottom of the deep crater, a pair of giant metallic paws climbed out of the pit. A demonic looking three headed robot dog. It made a metallic snarl as it emerged onto the street, baring its mouths full of gleaming fangs. Each mouth was brimming with energy of a different kind. One head's teeth was crackling with lightning. Its eyes glowed white. Another head breathed out a cloud of frost. Its eyes were icy blue. The final head had a mouth filled with hellish flames. Its eyes were like pools of magma.

"This is my second robot pet...T-Cerberus."

"Y-your pet?" Cream asked aghast as she beheld the snarling three headed robot monster dog.

"T-Pup is one of my first pet projects," Tails explained. "I had so much fun making it, I'd thought I'd try another one. I made him a bit tougher. You know, in case I don't have Mecha Kyuubi around. Don't worry, Cream. He's actually very friendly. Just now I've activated him for kill mode."

"T-Cerberus," Tails pointed to the circle of Peins. "Rip these guys apart!"

The robot beast roared and charged forward, raining down fire blasts, lightning bolts, and icy rays on everything its path. Preta Path dove into the front line, activating his energy barrier. Animal Path was behind him, leaping away from stray breath attacks and slammed his hand on the ground.

Animal Pein summoned his own monster. T-Cerberus lunged for the dog's neck, bit into it, and savagely tore its head from its neck.

The headless dog's neck twisted and shifted and multiple heads grew in its place. T-Cerberus made a rumbling sound like laughter before it reared its head back and belched out a deadly wave of energy that struck the summoned dog squarely in the chest with all three elements at once. Tails watched with amazement as the lights reflected in his eyes. Rings of lightning shocked its nervous system, immobilizing it. A beam of ice that froze the dog's insides to a brittle crystal, while at the same time, the flames roasted the flesh off its bones. T-Cerberus kept pouring its energies all at once until the multi-headed dog's death howls faded away and and the giant beast was reduced to a smoky pile of ash.

**"Shinra Tensei!" **

Pein uttered the words of his signature technique and before T-Cerberus could slurp up the blood on its mouth, Deva Pein waved his arm and lauched the giant mech flying high into the sky.

"Ugh!" Tails' ears went flat and he looked crestfallen as one of his favorite creations went flying into the stratosphere. "That has got to the most annoying technique I have ever seen."

"Not as annoying as your tiresome inventions," Pein said. "Now you see that there is nothing you can build that is too powerful to withstand the Almighty Push of God. Now I will show you how a god handles machinery."

The newly resurrected Asura Path stepped forward and held out his cybernetic arm, its metal twisted and reshaped itself into a cannon mounted to his shoulder. Waves of intense sonic energy fired from his gun arm. Sound waves so loud, so piercing, that windows shattered and and stone crumbled all around them.

Tails screamed and fell to his knees, clutching his head in agony as the sounds reverberated through his skull. Blood leaked out of his twitching ears. His brain felt like it had melted into mush and would soon spill out next.

Pein carefully observed the little fox squirming on the floor as he was bombarded by sonic waves. He had to be careful. A few minute longer and Tails would drop dead right there on the spot. Luckily, there was still time for more pain,

**"Shinra Tensei!" **Pein lifted Tails into the air only to smash him into the concrete ground. Five seconds later, he did it again, pulverizing Tails' face into the earth, snapping his bones apart all white bombarding him with sonic waves.

"Stop it! You're killing him!" Cream cried.

"Only to a point," Pein said and pushed her away. "I still need this vessel intact."

Another five seconds passed. Tails floated up and came crashing down again hard. He could barely open his eyes. The sonics were murdering his ear drums, liquifying his insides, but even through that, he still made out Cream's broken sobs.

"You're about to slip away, kitsune. By the time you wake up, everyone you know will be dead."

There was a still silence in the air as Asura Path cranked his sonic gun up to full power. Tails painstakingly crawled out inch by inch of the small hole he made in impact. His limbs trembled and his head hang low. Every torn muscle, every cracked bone in his body screamed in pain. Tails fought through it all as he crawled on his hands and knees out of the grave Pein made for him. With a weak grunt, Tails lifted up his eye and stared down the barrel of the cyborg's gun arm.

"I can take it," Tails said with a grim smile on his blood smeared face. "I can take anything you throw at me. That's the Kyuubi way."

"Know true Pein." Asura Path fired. Tails' world exploded into white light.

"Huh?" Tails waited for the screaming onslaught, but felt nothing. When the white haze cleared away, Tails saw that Asura's gun arm was blown away clean off its shoulder.

A blazing white energy ball flew out of nowhere and struck Asura Path dead on, sending the brutish cyborg crashing into the nearest building.

Deva Pein swerved around in the direction of the blast to face this interloper.

"You."

"Sorry I'm late, Tails!" a familiar voice called out.

It was Kakashi, galloping on the back of a giant shining white horse - with a dolphin's head and five tails.

"Ka-kakashi-sensei..." Tails said in a weak voice with tears forming in his eyes. "You came back."

"A little trip to the nether world never stopped anyone, did it?" Kakashi reached out with his hand and pulled the little fox onto the demon horse's back and held him close to his chest. "Tails, you poor kid. We better get you out of here." Kakashi commanded his mount to gallop away, but not before it snatched up Cream and Blaze with its tails.

"Kakashi-sensei! Where were you?" Tails asked.

"Learning to ride a five tailed demon dolphin-horse," Kakashi replied. "I figured we'd need the help. It's quite fun, Tails. Hang on. Show him how fast you can go, Kokuo."

The Five Tailed Demon took off at full speed. Silver streaks raced down the city streets, scattering the fires wildly, running away.

"I don't feel so good, sensei."

"Sonic attacks are something you will want to be especially careful of in the future, what with those sensitive little ears you got there. But don't worry. You won't go deaf."

**"Greetings, Lord Kurama," **the silver horse dolphin spoke.** "It's been a long time since we joined together on the field of combat."**

"I thought that Itachi freeing all the demons would be disastrous, but these guys are actually real handy to have around," Kakashi said. I was lucky to bump into when I escaped from Gedo Mazo."

Kurama let out a nasty snarl. **"Why have you come to help, Kokuo?"**

**"Becasue we have a common enemy." **Kokuo said simply.

Animal Path was above them, soaring on the back of a mutant demonic bird with a horrendously wicked looking beak shaped like a harpoon.

Kakashi sighed. "Pein's not giving us a break, I see. He'll chase us to the ends of Mobius."

**"No worries. I'm the fastest of all the bijuu," **said Kokuo.

**"Hmph," **Kurama chuckled to himself.** No you're not, pony boy." **

**"I hear you grumbling down there, Kurama. But I still maintain that I am the swiftest. Easily faster than even Sonic the Hedeghog." **

Kurama snorted. **"The Hell you are**.** I still think that Rikudo Sennin must've been drunk off his ass when he created you. A horse and a dolphin hybrid. Someone explain that to me."**

**"One of the fastest runners combined with the fastest swimmers. It always made sense to me."**

_"Is this the kind of thing that bijuu talk about with each other?"_ Kakashi wondered.

**"I know how your pride must feel, Kurama, receiving help from your siblings that you have always looked down upon, but I suggest you put those feelings aside and help us. Start by giving your poor host a little healing." **

"We can't keep on running forever," Kakashi said. "I have to get Tails out of here and come back with reinforcements."

**"I understand. I'll hold them off," **Kokuo stopped in his tracks and gathered his demonic chakra into a Tailed Beast Bomb.

"Where are we going?" Tails asked weakly.

"To find someone who can help us defeat Pein."

Kokuo fired a diamond blast just as Kakashi's Kamui swallowed Tails and himself in a sea of red, sucking through the dimensional wormhole. The Bomb exploded in midair, scattering Animal Path's forces into the wind. When Animal Path got his bearings, Kakashi and the kitsune were gone.

* * *

Tails opened his eyes and found himself in an alien world.

The skies were green. He was on a hilltop, overlooking a vast tropical valley. A golden sun shone from a bluish green sky. He could hear the forests and swamps below teeming with life. Huge waterfalls cascading over moss covered mountains. The grass under his shoes was springy and sparkling with dew, and the earth was soft and squishy beneath his feet. A spray of mist softly hissed in the air.

He definitely wasn't on Möbius. If Robotnik ever discovered this place, he'd torch it to the ground and build a giant factory on top in a second.

"Kakashi-senseeeeeeeeiiii!" Tails called out.

No answer.

"I guess Kamui isn't the most accurate teleportation jutsu. He must've landed somewhere else. What is this place?"

**"A good place to chill, that's what," **Kurama said. "**I'm exhausted as all Hell!"**

"Me too. I can barely stand," Tails winced with pain with every breath he took and collapsed into the grass. "My ribs are broken. Probably half my bones too."

**"Do you have any idea what you look like now?"**

"There are people that look a whole lot worse," Tails said. He picked up a walking stick and trudged down the hill towards the swamp. "Sure, maybe old Tails would've ran away and let Sonic finish things, but Mobius doesn't have Sonic now. It's up to me."

**"I'm also starving to death." **

Tails put a hand to his gurgling stomach. "I'm hungry, too. Maybe we can find some food around somewhere."

**"At the first sign of wildlife, kill it and eat it. I don't even care what it is."**

Tails started to hike down the hill and through the marshy grassland. The mountain birds with plumage of all colors flew freely in the sky him. The song of the birds chirping sweetly filled the air. "The birds are way too pretty to eat. They remind me of my pet flickies...Wait a sec. I knew there was something familiar about this place. This feeling in the air..."

**"What is it?"**

"It's sort of like when Sonic becomes Super Sonic," Tails said. "Or like when I became Super Tails. You can feel his energy rippling for miles all around. This whole valley is pulsing with that same kind of energy. I actually feel a whole lot better just walking around out here," Tails stopped to look into a pool of water and saw in his reflection the blood and bruises slowly fading away from his face. "There might even be a chaos emerald nearby."

Stepping out of the dense jungle brush, Tails discovered a waterfall. It looked like a shrine was set up by the mountain side. A circle of statues, all of toads silently deep in meditation surrounding a shimmering pool of oil.

"Something tells me that a lot of the power from this place comes from that pool," Tails said. Curious, he bent down and stuck his hand into the pool of oil.

"Strange..." Tails said, puzzled. "This isn't normal oil. I wonder what kind of properties it-"

"You there!" What do you think your'e doing?" a harsh voice called out. Tail spun around to meet an elderly looking toad about half his size holding a large oak staff in his hand.

"You can't touch that," the old toad said and smacked Tails on the hand.

"OW!" Tails yelped in pain. "What was that for?"

"Don't go touchin' things that you don't know what they're for," said the toad. "And you're radiating a strange chakra, young fella. Looks like demon energy to-Hey! Watch where you going..."

"Yaah!" While nursing his hand, Tails slipped and fell right into the pool. Oil splashed everywhere.

The old toad shook his head. "What a klutz..."

The toad was waiting for him at the edge of the pool with his staff in hand. Before Tails could lurch to his feet, the staff came crashing down on his head and Tails was knocked out cold.

* * *

"Feeling, better, Naruto?" Shima asked as she stirred the simmering contents of her dinner over the stove.

Naruto sat hunched over at the dinner table, feeling queasy over the fumes wafting over from Shima's cooking.

"A little. That pain, and those visions are gone, but I still feel like crap. Now I've got this headache that feels like someone's bashing against the inside of my skull. What if I'm being bombarded by psychic signals from another dimension and something like a giant robot is gonna explode out of my head?"

Shima blinked, then went back to stirring her slop. "Ah, you've just been watchin' too many cartoons on an empty stomach. Little Jiraiya was the same way. My cookin' straightened him out."

There was a hard pounding at the door.

Shima looked after throwing some maggots into the frying pan. "Ooh! Dinner guests. I wonder who it could be-"

"Naruto," Fukusaku barged in, dragging along with him a dazed looking two-tailed fox. "You have a visitor. I think you know this guy."

Tails stumbled into the hut like a drunkard and found his way to the table across from Naruto.

Naruto stood up, staring at the newcomer wide eyed. "Tails?" He couldn't hold back the huge grin on his face. "What are you doing here?"

"Ughnn...my head. Hi, Naruto. Whaz fer lunch?" Tails waved and his head collapsed onto the table.

Naruto shot a glare at the old toad. "What did you do to him?"

"He took a dip in the sacred oil fountain," Fukusaku said. "I had to beat him over the head or else he woulda turned into a petrified toad statue by now."

"You beat the shit out of him!" Naruto exclaimed. "It looks like a monster truck ran him over."

"Hey! That's a great idea for my next mech," Tails perked up suddenly. "A big fiery red Kyuubi monster truck! Thanks for the inspiration." He plopped his head on the table again.

"Most of his injuries aren't from me. I found him like this," said Fukusaku. "He was in a fight before he got here, from the looks of it. A real serious one. His chakra's been severely depleted, too. Someone with a very cruel nature turned your fox friend into a punching bag."

Naruto dug his fingers into the table. "Anyone who would lay a finger on Tails has got to be a soulless, cold hearted bastard," Naruto growled. "I'll kick their asses."

"Ah, you're all just exaggerratin' too much," Shima waved her hand dismissively. "Sure, maybe Tou-chan gave him a concussion, and he got a little tenderized, but that's nothin' that can't be cured with some good eats!" The old toad started piling dishes onto the table.

"Do foxes eat this kind of stuff?" Fukusaku asked.

"Looks like we're about to find out..." Naruto said with a smirk.

"This is exactly the kind of thing he needs right now," Shima insisted "My meals are the healthiest you'll find in this mountain region. Packed with protein and vitamins. Not like all that ramen you eat with all those salts and fats and those dreadful simple carbohydrates. Ya can't train a great Sage on that junk!"

"This chubby little fox could stand to learn a thing or two about carbs himself," Fukusaku added, poking Tails' belly with his stick.

"You'll see that after I serve him up this grub, he'll be all patched up and back to full strength, better than ever," said Shima. "He'll be so pumped up, he'll be jumping up and down, beggin' for seconds."

"I don't know about the seconds part..." Naruto muttered.

"Here's the secret ingredient," Shima hed out a handful of black spiders with orange spirals on their backs. "You know your Uzumaki lineage is known for some powerful life force. These are Whirlpool spiders, named for the spiral design on their backs. You can find 'em crawling all over the Whirlpool Country." She crushed them in her hands and sprinkled them onto the dish.

Naruto smirked as he saw what the kit was about to eat. "This is gonna be great. He's so out of it, he doesn't know what's coming."

"Oh just one warning. There's _a lot _of energy in this grub. I pulled out all the stops. He might get a little too energetic. Maybe a little aggressive."

"I'm sure he could use a little more of that," Naruto slid a full bowl of the stuff in front of Tails' face. "Ya hungry, Tails?"

Tails nodded absently. "Uh-huh."

"Good, because I'm not eating this stuff."

Tails picked up a pair of chopsticks and slurped up a mouthful of juicy maggots, worms, crushed spiders, and crispy fried custard filled grasshoppers.

_Crunch Crunch Crunch_

"That's right. Eat up, little buddy." With a cruel smirk, Naruto slid him another plate.

"Mphh...! " Tails' face turned a sickly shade of green. His eyes turned watery.

"Look at how much he loves my cooking!" Shima cried.

"BLURGH!" Tails puked his guts out along with the pasty horrors of chewed up bugs onto the floor. Naruto ducked away in time to avoid getting spewed on.

Tails was fully awake, panting heavily, letting his tongue hanging open. The grimy taste coated the insides of his mouth. He would be brushing his teeth for a week straight.

"Wha-what the heck did I just eat?" he cried.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Naruto pounded his fist on the table, cracking up so hard, his sides hurt and tears were leaking from his eyes.

Tails sat and stared at Naruto dumbfounded for minute while Naruto continued to laugh his ass off. He started to growl. His tails swished back and forth angrily.

Naruto wiped a tear from his eye. "Oh, Tails. You dumbass! You stupid, stupid little dumbass! That face you made, the way you stuffed those bugs on your mouth, it was perfect! HAHAHAHAHA!"

While Naruto was laughing his ass off, Tails growled as he leapt across the table. He slammed Naruto in the chest and tackled him to the ground. Naruto made a stunned what the hell expression as the wind got knocked out of him.

"You made me eat bugs, you jerk!" Tails yelled and decked Naruto in the face. Naruto knocked Tails aside and pinned the squirming fox down.

"Ease up, fuzzball. It was just a-" Tails kicked him in the gut, sending Naruto flying, crashing through the wall, and rolling down the hill into the swamp.

Naruto got up with an aching moan. "Damn, that kid is strong..."

Tails twisted his two tails and pounced on top of Naruto again and proceeded to pound the crap out of him. Naruto punched him right back and the two of them rolled around on the ground, kicking up a violent dust cloud.

Jiraiya was one his way to the Toads' hut humming a peaceful tune to himself, looking forward for a quiet evening of distraction free writing. The next day, he would be on his way to confront Orochimaru and this was easily going to be one of his last stress free nights. All he wanted to do was set is mind at ease and let his creative juices pour out onto the page. That hope was shattered when he noticed the gaping hole on the side of the house and Naruto engaged in a wrestling match with a little orange fox creature. At this point, Naruto had his hands around the fox's throat who was thrashing away with two tails.

'What's all this commotion about?" Jiraiya asked, scratching his head. "Huh? A two tailed fox? Is that...when did he show up?"

"Just today," said Fukusaka, appearing beside him. "I think he and Naruto-chan are busy getting to know each other again."

"Geez, when the Sage said there would be an epic death battle between Naruto and the demon fox, I didn't think it would happen _today._"

While fending off Tails' punches, Naruto dug his hand into the soft earth and pulled up a handful of worms. In his other hand appeared a Rasengan. "You didn't finish eating yet, Tails. Now you can either eat this handful of worms I just plucked out of the ground or see what this Rasengan tastes like."

"Oh, yeah? Well, I'll feed you this Chidori!" Tails shot back, countering with a thousand chirping, crackling lightning bolts fusing to his hand.

Jiraiya looked on in fascination. _"That fox learned how to use Chidori? Let's see how tough it is."_

"Stop them, Jiraiya-chan," Fukusaku protested, "before this gets out of hand and they kill each other!"

"Very well," Jiraiya sighed and stepped in between Naruto and Tails. "All right, I don't know what this is all about, but I think you two need to break it up. Someone's gonna get hurt."

Too late. Tails and Naruto rocketed towards each other, their hands pulsing with charka that set the toad swampland aglow.

"Oh, crap..." Jiraiya croaked just before both the blinding force of a Rasengan and a Chidori plowed into him.

"EEEYAAAAAAARRRGGHHHH!" A blinding explosion sent Jiraiya flying off into the clouds, only to later crash into the distant mountains.

"Look what you did now, Tails," Naruto shot an accusing finger at Tails. "You killed my sensei!"

Tails' ears flattened and stared at his smoking hand in disbelief. "But I-I didn't...I mean he was in the way...I couldn't stop..."

"Heheeheeheheh..." Watching Tails squirm so nervously, Naruto couldn't hold back anymore and started cracking up. Tails was left feeling very confused. "Sorry, Tails. I just love messin' with you."

"Heheheheheheh..." Tails found himself chuckling and soon, he too couldn't hold it in.

"TAILS!"

"NARUTO!"

They both laughed and ran into each other. Tails jumped up and hurled himself into Naruto's arms, knocking him to the ground again. Naruto grabbed Tails into a headlock and noogied the hell out of him, laughing the entire time.

"Ah! Lemme go!" Tails cried and wriggled free from Naruto's grasp.

"Heh. It's so great having you back, little buddy. Life's been boring here without you. I haven't had this much fun in a long time."

"Fun?" Jiraiya growled when he made his return. He gritted his teeth as he dragged his feet along the ground, glaring at Naruto with a pained expression on his bruised and ashen face. "You think it's fun getting electrocuted and blown halfway across the mountain? If my line of apprentices didn't invent those jutsus, I'd be dead by now!"

"Oh, hey, Ero-sennin," Naruto greeted. "This is my little brother, Tails, the super awesome ninja fox. Tails, that's my sensei. He's an even bigger pervert than you are."

"Well met, Tails," Jiraiya extended his hand and shook Tails'. "It's an honor to meet a fellow pervert."

"Wha?" Tails looked confused.

"Don't be so modest," Jiraiya said, grinning. "I would love to have some of your input for my research. Naruto really likes to go on all the time about how smart and skilled you are. There's a lot of beautiful women I'd like you to meet, Tails."

"R-really?" Tails blushed, feeling the blood rushing to his face. He mentally forced back an incoming nose bleed.

"Have you read any of the volumes in my Icha Icha series?" Jiraiya asked.

"Not really, but I saw the musical."

"Because I have a problem," Jiraiya said gravely. "The old Sage said that my work was going stale. Maybe you're the answer to breathe some fresh new life into the franchise. Tell me, Tails. Do you think you could invent for me, say, a pair of X-ray glasses?"

"Sure. That's easy."

"Yes!" Jiraiya cackled and started drooling. "I've got lots of other good ideas that could use a genius of your caliber to work on. Ever wanted to make a movie?"

"Much as I'd love to see the great sannin at work, first we have some business to take care of," Kakashi interrupted, casually strolling down the hill.

"Kakashi-sensei! You came here, too?" Naruto asked.

"I teleported here with Tails. Looks like he got here first."

"You were on Mobius this whole time. Weren't you, Kakashi?" Jiraiya asked.

"Tails needed a sensei and I needed to get away for awhile. It worked out pretty nicely for all of us, I'd say."

"And if you came back, then you must need my help," said Jiraiya, crossing his arms. "Who are you fighting?"

"The Akatsuki Leader," said Kakashi. "I know you've always been interested in him."

Naruto's went ridiculously wide eyed. "No way! You fought the Leader? Tails, did you kick his ass?"

Tails looked away from Naruto. "More like he kicked my ass, really," he mumbled. "Oh, man. He's tough. And he did it all those evil looking eyes, staring right into me," Tails started shaking, holding one his tails tightly. "That guy scares me."

Jiraiya bent down and looked Tails in the eye. "Scary looking eyes, huh? Can you tell me what those eyes looked like?"

"They were purple with all these rippling circle patterns," Tails said. "Creepiest eyes I've ever seen. He called it the Rinnegan."

"The Rinnegan?" Jiraiya's face froze. Now it was his turn to start shuddering. "I see. So he's alive," he muttered under his breath. "We must get to Mobius right now."

"Am I coming too, Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"Absolutely! We need everything we can get to throw at this madman. Time to see if all that training of yours paid off."

"Sick!" Naruto pumped his fist in the air. "You're coming too. Right, Tails?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure thing," Tails said with a lump in his throat.

Naruto sat down next to Tails and pulled and arm around him. "Hey, don't be nervous, little buddy. This is big exciting stuff. I'm really looking forward to see what what it feels like to fight with you on my team. I know the guy hit you hard, but I bet you didn't take any of his shit lying down. He threw everything he had at yo, but you didn't give up for a second. Am I right?"

Tails calmed down a little and his eyes lit up. "Yeah. You're right. I really didn't."

We'll get him this time," Naruto said. "We'll beat his ass together. I promise. We're gonna save the world. And when it's all over, you're gonna be Mobius' greatest hero ever."

Tails' face positively glowed. "Wow, we'll really be fighting together. Side by side. Naruto and Tails. Do you think that has a good ring to it?"

"Yeah, but before we go out there, I need you to promise me something."

"What is it?"

"We're doing things differently than what you're used to. None of this sidekick crap. That might've worked for Sonic, but not with me. I never wanted one before and I don't want one now. If we're going to defeat the Akatsuki Leader, we do it as partners. We fight as equals. I can't be like a sensei to you. Hell, you probably know more techniques than I do by now. It''ll be more like you teach me and I teach you."

"Like...Pokemon?" Tails asked.

"Yeah. Like fucking Pokemon. So get your Thundershock ready, Pikachu. We're going to blast those Akatsuki bastards to Hell and back. Together. What I'm saying is," Naruto placed a warm hand on Tails' shoulder and smiled down at him. "I trust you my life, Tails."

"You okay with this, Jiraiya?" Kakashi asked warily. "We'll practically be handing Pein his target."

"Numbers are our best advantage over the Rinnegan," Jiraiya said, gathering an armful of summoning scrolls. "Trust and teamwork will be more important than ever in this situation. Your favorite thing, Kakashi. You might even say that you've been preparing your whole life for this battle."

"Really? Then if we're all suited up and ready for battle, I'll transport us all back to Mobius."

"Hold it," Fukusaku hopped over to Naruto and placed a sealed scroll in his hand. "The Sage wanted you to have this."

"What is it?"

"That's the prophecy you were given written down," said Fukusaku.

"What do I need this for? The Geezer Sage really thinks I'm gonna forget all that crap?"

"All prophecies are considered as part of the sacred writings of Mt. Myoboku," said Fukusaku. "Anyone who receives a prophecy must keep the recordings of his vision with him. You never know when it might be important for later."

"Fine. I get it. I'll take the dumb scroll," Naruto crumpled the scroll up and stuffed it into his pocket.

"Hye, Jiraiya-sensei?" Tails looked up at the sannin with hopeful eyes. "Can we really do it? Can we really beat Pein?"

"Pein. Is that what he's calling himself these days?" Jiraiya asked. "It's possible. I don't know for sure, but if he's running loose on your world, then I have the responsibility to go there and stop him."

"Why's that?"

"Because I trained him."

* * *

Ash fell from the sky.

Billions of flakes of cold ash fluttering amidst burning cinders blackened the sky and cast a grim shadow over the ruins of Station Square.

With two empty handguns lying before her, Hinata emptied a fresh new box of bullets into her hands, knowing that she would need every single one.

She knew what was to come. _"I'll have to fight Pein eventually. I can't hesitate this time. I'll have to do it like Shadow-kun taught me. Right between the eyes." _She locked her magazines into place. Pein seemed to be an unbeatable force. Maybe it was stupid to let Cream go down there. Was Konan right? Did she really send Cream to her death? She closed her eye to shut out the negative thoughts. The Akatsuki Leader's chakra was so overwhelming, with all five nature elements and yin yang chakras coming together, it overthrew the precious balance that came form standing in the center of the Eight Triagrams. She breathed from the center of her stomach.

_"Naruto-kun is always so positive. I have to be that way, too." _she thought. "I'm ready for you, Pein."

A harsh breeze blew past her accompanied by a sinister chuckle and it was then that Hinata was not alone.

"Really? You think you can challenge an almighty god when you still have to get through me?" the woman's voice sneered.

Konana had returned. She has risen from the cloud of ashes, like a dark phoenix. Her Akatsuki cloak was gone, but now she wore a new, much more revealing one. It was a skin tight, sleeveless coat that opened up to her reveal her midriff. She plucked the pale blue flower form her hair that was now blackened by soot.

"This city will crumble to ashes. And from those ashes, Mobius will see the rise of a new god."

"Ano, I think you're all taking this whole "god" concept a little too far," Hinata said. She took careful aim with both guns.

A swirling storm of hot ash surrounded Hinata. "Even if my paper is destroyed, I can still control the ashes and the fire."

Konan spread her wings and took to the air, flying over Hinata. They were no longer angel wings but now took the form of a pair of skeletal wings made of ash, burning with deep embers. Hinata opened fire. Her bullets sailed through the smoke. Her aim was perfect, but the dark angel swooped low and dodged - the gunfire passed through her ash born wings harmlessly.

Hinata backed away, shielding her eyes with her arm against the stinging, burning cinders and the putrid taste of smog. Konan was nearly invisible to Hinata's eyes, now nothing more than a ghostly gray shadow. A cold blue fire flickered in her eyes. She lashed out with a tendril of ash that invaded Hinata's mouth and snaked its way down into Hinata's throat. She gagged and chocked as the bitter taste of burning black ash went down her throat and filled her lungs.

"You are going to suffer a very painful death by asphyxiation," Konan said. "The ash will clog up your lungs until they explode inside you. A horrible way to go."

"Na-Naruto-kun..." Hinata tried to say, but the ash chocked her into silence.

A gust of wind blew from behind The horrible mass of blackness that squeezed Hinata's lungs was expelled out of her mouth. Hinata gasped and chocked as she fell to the ground. She could breathe again. The screaming winds blew her hair in her face. She couldn't see a thing except for Konan's frustrated face as her precious ash techniques were neutralized.

"The winds...like a hurricane? Where are they coming from? Show yourself, coward!" Konan screamed into the howling winds but her voice was barely heard.

"I'm through with you," Konan kicked Hinata in the gut, throwing her off the edge of the roof.

Hinata fell through the air. Nothing to grab onto. Just a straight thousand foot drop to her death on the streets below.

"I'm sorry, everyone" she whispered to herself. "I was so weak." She closed her eyes and waited for the end.

Seconds passed. Hinata felt something touch her hand. Something warm. She opened and to her shock, she found herself suspended in midair. "_Am I dead or dreaming or..." _Hinata looked up and saw the last thing she ever expected to see in this place.

"Hi, Hinata."

_"I must be dreaming."_

Naruto. Naruto-kun was flying in the air holding tight onto Hinata's arm. The red coat he wore fluttered behind him like a superhero's cape. Naruto-kun had swooped down, flying in form nowhere to save her.

"Relax, Hinata. I got you," Naruto said.

"B-b-but who's got you?" she stammered.

"I fly now, Hinata. I ride the wind," he said. "Lucky you I saw you falling."

"You came for me!" Hinata cried and wrapped her arms around Naruto tightly.

"Hey, Hinata," Naruto said as they floated back to earth, "you really got your ass kicked. It must suck having to handle Akatsuki on your own. Why don't you stick with me and we'll beat Pein together?"

"Ano, Naruto-kun, I..." Hinata, already so breathless passed out in Naruto's arms.

"She fainted. Figures. Guess I'll have to fight Pein alone," Naruto said as he set Hinata down. One of the toads would come to watch over her. "If we get into trouble, I hope you'll wake up in time to help us out. I'll need you, Hinata-chan." As he turned away, a faint smile crept around Hinata's mouth.

* * *

**"Shinra Tensei!"**

"Ahhh!" Manic yelped as that miserable force attack ravaged his body and shoved his face into the asphalt. he staggered dizzyingly trying to get back to his feet, but the shadow of Pein was already on top him. Pein grabbed the green hedgehog by the throat and lifted him up so that Manic was forced to stare up close into those deep rippling eyes.

"You thought you could hide from the all seeing eyes of God? Tell me. Where is your sister hiding?"

Manic simply shrugged. "If you're so all knowing, you tell me. We split up when things got crazy. Why would I bother telling you, anyway?"

"Because I'll kill you if she doesn't show up soon," Pein said, squeezing his neck tighter to the point where it nearly cracked.

Manic let out a strangled laugh, a trickle of blood escaping from his mouth. "Yeah? Dude, you'd kill me anyway."

"That was your mistake," Pein said. "If you hadn't interfered with us, you could have been spared. But you came into this conflict seeking glory. All you will find here is pain."

"Hey, man," Manic flashed him a bloody little smirk. "It's like Bob Marley always said, One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain."

"PEIN!" a loud voice echoed across the empty streets." Drop that hedgehog!"

Pein kept his grip tightened around Manic's neck as he gazed down the road to see a ninja walking out of the smoke. They had never met before, but Pein recognized him immediately. He had been watching him for a long time, but since his campaign on Mobius, Pein had almost forgotten about him.

"Uzumaki Naruto," He had to admit that the boy carried a stronger presence with him. He looked almost like the Fourth Hokage, especially with that red cloak with black flames on the bottom. Yes, there was something very Hokage-like about him. "I have no interest in you anymore. Your Jinchuuriki left you and so you are worthless to me."

"I don't need to prove my worth to the likes of you," Naruto said. "I'm just here to make you stop trashing everything on Mobius."

"Hn," Pein threw Manic aside like a pile of trash. "Look around you. This planet is already mine. Did you really think coming here would make a difference?"

Naruto smirked. "Yeah. I thought it would, but in case I'm not enough, I didn't come alone."

A massive thunderclap cracked above. In a flash of lightning, Pein swerved around to see a new group of ninjas. And toads. A whole gang of giant toads armed for battle with swords and axes. All kinds of samurai weapons. In the middle sat a giant red toad with a scar on his face who smoked his pipe. On top his head sat a man with long white hair. The Toad Hermit who summoned them here."

"I can't believe it. You certainly look different, but the same eyes are there. The Akatsuki Leader...it was you all along."

"Greetings, Jiraiya-sensei. My name is Pein now."

"Very well, Pein. Whatever you call yourself, it is my duty as your sensei to put an end to this madness."

"I am not interested in a reunion, sensei. He's with you, isn't he? Where is the two-tailed kitsune?"

Jiraiya chuckled. "All right, Pein. My last gift to my beloved apprentice. I'll give him to you."

Another deafening thunderclap and a chaotic dance of lightning ripped open the night sky, burning bright as day. Tails flew down, surrounded by a blast of radiant blue lightning. He was different now. Pein could see that in the fierce look in his electric blue eyes. The little fox's body was brimming with chakra of all kinds. He looked different too, now wearing wore a long coat just like Naruto's, but his was black with red orange flames licking the behindhim i nthe hot breeze as he stepped in to face the Akatsuki Leader. His forehead protector flashed a shining blue in the storm light.

"So the Nine Tails return to do battle. With friends." The Six Peins gathered together. "I've slain everyone who has gotten in my way until now. You will all be next."

"Would you listen to this guy?" Naruto scoffed. "You ready, Tails? Ready to save the world?"

"Yeah," Tails nodded with an eager grin that showed off his sharp teeth. "Let's do it, Naruto."

**To Be Continued**


End file.
